


Is That A Python in Your Pants or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

by MitchMatchedSocks



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cat/Human Hybrids, Fluff and Smut, Humor, Hybrids, M/M, Snake/Human Hybrids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2018-12-14 14:19:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11784933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MitchMatchedSocks/pseuds/MitchMatchedSocks
Summary: Jongin, Yixing, Baekhyun, and Jongdae get a new flatmate. Jongin thinks he's gorgeous. The cats think he smells like a snake.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was supposed to same the title 'Mind if I Slither In' for this but I forgot and I'm so so mad at myself. 
> 
> This was a little exercise in humor! I've been working on it for a while and I love it. If you couldn't tell, I love snakes and reptiles.

Baekhyun stormed in with all his usual elegance, slamming the door into the wall and burping loudly. His tail twitched back and forth with agitation as he sniffed the air. 

“What the fuck is that smell?” 

“What smell? You did just burp.” Jongin sat up and rubbed his eyes. He’d been asleep. Baekhyun was too noisy.

Baekhyun hefted his bags and stomped further into the apartment. “It smells straight up like snake in here.” 

“Like what?” 

“Like snake! Snakes have this scaly reptilian smell to them. I went to a reptile room once as a kid. Only once. It smelled kind of like this.” 

“Good smell? Bad smell?” 

“I mean its just a smell. Its not necessarily bad but it’s putting me on edge! I hate snakes, Jongin. I hate them.” Poor snakes. 

“I don’t mind snakes.” 

“Well congratulations. You want a cookie?” 

Jongin murmured that he would love a cookie as Baekhyun stomped across the room to where Jongin was lounging on the couch and flung himself on Jongin’s lap, effectively knocking all the air out of him.

“I don’t care if you like snakes or not, aren’t you concerned that there’s one in here?” 

“Uhh-hugh…” 

“You good?” 

Jongin coughed and gasped for breath. 

“I’m getting to the bottom of this, Jongin. I will not be able to sleep in the suite until I find that snake.” 

 

There was a small cat hybrid asleep on top of a tired looking boy when Sehun finally made the effort to pull on a second sweater so he could put his dishes in the kitchen. There was also a second cat hybrid lounging in an arm chair, talking to a sweet looking boy with one dimple. Too many strangers. Sehun licked his lips. The house smelled very strongly of cats. It was a nice smell, kind of like… chicken, though he figured that cats would call the cops if he said so. Cats were always unfailingly passive aggressive, even to the point of inconveniencing law enforcement. 

Dimples boy saw him and got up to say hello. Sehun subtly began stowing mugs faster.

“Hello! Welcome to the suite! My name is Yixing. What’s yours?” 

“…Oh Sehun. It’s written on my door.” The rest of the room watched closely, including the no longer sleeping cat. Sehun fidgeted. 

“Haha, I guess you’re right. I should have looked.” Fuck he really was sweet. He walked closer into the kitchen. “Plates go over there.” That was good to know. Now he didn’t have to waste time looking for a place to put them. He gave Yixing a mean side eye and went to put the plates where he directed. Yixing seemed unfazed. 

“So were you abroad last semester, or are you a transfer student?” 

“Abroad.” 

“Very cool. The guy who used to live in your room, Minseok, is in China this semester. Where did you go?” 

“Australia.” Sehun really wished dimples kid would stop asking questions. 

“Nice, how was it?” 

“Warm.” 

Yixing laughed and nodded as Sehun frantically looked for the silverware drawer.

“The guy on the couch is Jongin, and the cat on top of him is Baekhyun. The other cat is Jongdae.” He was right next to Sehun now, and nerves jumped around in his stomach. 

“Cool.” 

“Um. We usually all have dinner together, if you want to join.” 

“No thanks.” He finally turned to look Yixing fully in the face for the first time, and he saw Yixing blink in confusion, like he knew something looked wrong but couldn’t put a finger on what. That was the moment Sehun was always anxious about. 

Sehun put his last dish away and quickly went back to his own room and closed the door a little louder than necessary. Someone outside said “what the fuck is his problem.” Mission success. Sehun sighed and checked the thermostat. Almost eighty degrees. He crawled under his blankets and waited until it got a little warmer. Maybe he should have been nicer to his housemates. He was going to have to live with them after all. But two of them were cats, it was probably a lost cause. 

 

“His eyes looked weird.” Yixing mused. 

“His face looked weird. What a dick. He smells like a snake.” Baekhyun had concluded as soon as Sehun shut his door that he was the source of the snake smell. Jongin nuzzled into Baekhyun’s shoulder. 

“What did his eyes look like, Xing?” 

“They were a weird steel gray color, but his pupils were ringed in white. It looked like he had a tiny lunar eclipse in his eyes.” 

“Well that’s very poetic, but he’s still a prick,” Baekhyun snapped, and Jongin stroked his ears to calm him down. 

“He was a total dick Baekhyun, we were all there, we saw it.” 

“It sucks that we have to live with him for the rest of the year,” Jongdae said. “Maybe he’ll move out. It doesn’t seem like he wants to be here.” 

“Maybe we can just make him miserable until he leaves,” Baekhyun said with a wicked glint in his eye, as if he was already planning all the loud parties and temper tantrums and malicious pranks. 

Jongin smiled. “No, I don’t want to be mean. Do you think he’s a hybrid?”

“Of course he’s a hybrid. He’s a snake hybrid.” 

Jongin laughed but stopped when Jongdae nodded in agreement. 

“What? That’s a real thing that exists? I thought they couldn’t make non-mammal hybrids.” 

“There are a few birds.” Jongdae said. “But like, only a few. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the only successful reptile hybrid alive. I know they tried to make lizard and snake hybrids for some fucking reason back when hybrids were all new and exciting, but the reptile ones never turned out functional. They all died.” 

“I don’t think this one came out functional.” Baekhyun spat. 

Yixing frowned. “Maybe he’s a guy that just has a lot of snakes as pets or something. I’m not sure I’m ready to believe that the only successful reptile hybrid ever just started living in our suite.”

“He doesn’t smell like a human who has a lot of snakes,” Baekhyun snapped, but also reached over and ran a hand through Yixing’s hair. “He smells. Like a snake.” 

“Think about it,” Jongdae butted in more civilly, “You said his eyes looked weird. He’s also really tall and skinny and his face is kind of weirdly shaped. Like his jaw is pointy and stuff. He has a bit of a lisp, so his s’s kind of sound like hissing. And the noses don’t lie, my friend.” Jongdae tapped his nose knowingly. 

Jongin’s description of Sehun would have been similar with a few slight word changes, like ‘intense’ instead of weird, ‘slender’ instead of skinny, ‘uniquely sculpted’ instead of weirdly shaped. “He’s really really hot.” 

The three other people in the room turned to stare at Jongin like he had suggested they eat Baekhyun’s old gym shoes for dinner. Jongin blinked. “What, you guys don’t think so?” 

“He’s a fucking snake and he’s an asshole!” Baekhyun punched him in the shoulder. “Why did that statement need two reallys?” 

“Just ‘he’s hot’ doesn’t do him justice.” 

“Jesus, Jongin.” 

“I mean, he’s like the embodiment of tall dark and handsome. Did you see his shoulders?”

“His—what?” 

“Did you see his butt?” 

Baekhyun looked horrified and punched Jongin’s shoulder again, harder this time. “Don’t you dare talk about another man’s ass while I’m on your lap!” 

Jongin giggled and grabbed Baekhyun’s skinny butt with both hands. “But Baekhyun, I can’t talk about yours. You don’t have one.” 

Baekhyun squawked and hopped off Jongin’s lap, tail thrashing, and went to sit down on Yixing’s lap instead with his back to Jongin. “Yixing, you like my butt, right? Tell Jongin I’m not talking to him.”

Jongin laughed and apologized, but Baekhyun refused to look at him, so instead he reached out for Jongdae, who flicked his tail and stared evenly at Jongin as if he couldn’t hear him with blank smile on his face. Jongin gave up and flopped down on the couch in defeat. 

“Cats are the worst.” 

Baekhyun huffed indignantly. Jongin closed his eyes. 

When he woke up again, it was so Baekhyun could drag him to the kitchen to make dinner. They saw Sehun once, when he stomped out of his room looking like he was going to a fashion show in the arctic, and didn’t spare them a single glance as he left the apartment. 

 

Sehun didn’t know why he half expected things to gradually get warmer after Christmas every winter. As the semester got rolling and late January turned to early February the temperatures continued to drop, and Sehun lived in constant fear of the shitty heater in his room breaking. He kept it going full blast all the time, and sometimes it rattled threateningly like it was about to go on strike and ruin his life. 

He checked his phone. Seven o’clock. The housemates were almost definitely done eating now. He climbed reluctantly out from under his electric blanket and pulled on a large knit sweater before bravely opening the door and strolling out into the house. 

Damn it was cold. Probably just in contrast with Sehun’s room but still. Yixing and Jongin were sitting on the couch studying. Yixing looked up and gave him a friendly smile before Sehun had the chance to look away. Fuck him. Jongin also looked up and watched him as he made his way to the kitchen. He was wearing a soft-looking sweater and had a fuzzy blanket wrapped around his legs. He looked really warm. Warmer than his shitty electric blanket that only got to about ninety degrees. Fuck him too.

No cats in sight, though, so that was a plus. He could risk spending a little more time in the kitchen, so stir fry it was. 

The heat coming from the frying pan was nice. No one was bothering him. Sehun decided to try something new and add garlic. Just a little. It smelled amazing. If the damn housemates weren’t ever around, Sehun might learn how to cook. Goodness knows he had the time, with his homework always done several days in advance and nothing to do but watch shows on Netflix. 

He had just added the final ingredients when the smell of cat entered the room. He licked his lips. Yup, definitely cat. 

“Oh my god, I almost forgot we had another housemate.” 

Sehun turned around and glared, but Baekhyun was busy looking over at Yixing and Jongin. He wasn’t wearing any pants, and warmth radiated off him. Sehun really needed to get back into his room. 

“Baekhyun… why aren’t you wearing pants?” Good for Jongin, asking the real questions. 

“Well, I was studying, but it was boring so I decided to multitask.” He waved around a little white remote. Sehun licked his lips again and felt his face twist into unimpressed distaste. Cats were shameless. 

The humans were quiet, still putting two and two together as Baekhyun wandered into the kitchen. “Anyway I want cereal.” He set the remote down on the counter. Sehun angrily stirred his stir fry and wished he lived by himself. A faint buzzing reached his ears. 

“That smells good, snake boy.” 

Sehun twitched in irritation as the boys in the living room went quiet. 

“What kind of meat you got there? Frozen mice?” He got up on his tiptoes to reach for the cereal on one of the shelves. His fingers barely managed to touch the corner. Sehun leaned over and grabbed it for him, and then moved it up one shelf higher. Baekhyun stared up at it with a tight lipped expression. Served him right, bitch. 

Baekhyun sighed through his teeth and then hopped easily up onto the counter like he had springs in his skinny legs. Sehun was kind of impressed. Not for the jump, he was a cat after all, but he thought even a cat would have trouble with that kind of fluidity when they were hard and leaking and had something buzzing shoved up their ass. The chrome handle of the vibrating plug was just visible as Baekhyun kneeled on the counter and stretched up to grab the cereal. 

Sehun glanced quickly over at the humans, who were definitely not studying anymore. They looked uncomfortable for some reason, as if they hadn’t been living with hybrids for half a year. 

Sehun turned off the stove and dumped his delicious smelling stir fry onto his plate. Adding chicken had been a good idea, since Baekhyun’s proximity had him craving it anyway. Especially when he smelled so strong. But fuck him and his frozen mice comments. 

A little way down the counter Baekhyun poured milk into his cereal with a happy hum. Sehun sneered. 

“You put milk in your kibble?” 

Beakhyun set the milk down on the counter and stared blankly into his cereal like he knew he deserved it. Or maybe he was just trying to think of a comeback. Sehun didn’t want to give him the chance, so he hurriedly grabbed a fork out of the drawer just as Jongdae entered the room. 

“Whoa, I totally forgot Snake Boy exists.” 

Fucking cats. 

Jongdae blinked down at the remote on the counter and picked it up. Baekhyun stood up a little straighter as Jongdae looked up at him with a sly feline smile. The humans looked relieved, like maybe they though Jongdae was going to tell Baekhyun to go get decent or turn the toy off. 

Jongdae did no such thing. Jongdae turned the toy up as far as it would go, and then strolled away as Beakhyun wailed and dropped to the ground. Sehun gave them both his most disgusted expression, grabbed his food, and left. The humans looked mortified. Sehun glared at everyone and slammed his door. 

As soon as the door closed he set the food down on his desk and collapsed onto his bed so he could laugh hysterically into a pillow.


	2. Chapter 2

The cats said the words “Snake Boy” so often that once Jongin had to run over to look at Sehun’s door because he couldn’t remember his actual name. Not that it really mattered, since the only person to talk to Sehun since they started the semester was Baekhyun, and that had been a weird event that ended in Baekhyun cumming all over the kitchen floor. Unrelated of course, even though Jongin wasn’t sure he wouldn’t cum all over the floor if Sehun talked to him. Which was why he felt so bad about forgetting his name once. 

In his defense, Jongin had just woken up at the time, and he was usually pretty scattered when he woke up, and no one had actually called the kid “Sehun” in about a month. Even Yixing called him Snake Boy. He always looked guilty about it. 

And they talked about Snake Boy a lot, mostly so Baekhyun could bitch and hiss and make fun of Jongin for his crush. 

“Its not a crush, I just objectively think he’s really hot.” 

“Really really hot.” Jongdae corrected as he carefully filed his fingernails to look more like claws and less like fingernails. “Last time you were drunk you told us you wanted to stab yourself with his jawline.” 

“I-I did?” Dammit, he’d told himself he would never say that out loud. 

Baekhyun pouted. “I can’t believe he always walks through here and glares at us like we were the ones who took his friend’s room when they went abroad and then refused to interact with him. Who does he think he is in his three scarfs and five jackets and two hats and twenty pairs of pants? I bet he wears girly tights under all those layers.” 

“I’d love to see him in a pair of thigh high socks.” Oops, Jongin really should stop these things from jumping out of his mouth.

Baekhyun spluttered and leaned heavily on Yixing’s back, who patiently braced his arms on his knees and let Baekhyun do what he wanted. “What the fuck, Jongin, I’m trying to talk about how much I hate the fucking snake, and all you can do is tell us your gross fantasies?” 

“Says the guy who walks around the house while he’s masturbating.” 

“I wasn’t masturbating! My hands weren’t anywhere near my junk! I was just keeping myself warm while I got my cereal. Jongdae was the one who ruined it!” 

Jongdae smirked and examined his nails. 

“Whatever, I hope it made Snake Boy uncomfortable.”

Jongdae shook his head. “Doubt it, he’s a hybrid t—Yixing, did you just mutter ‘milk in your kibbles?’”

Yixing looked up innocently like he hadn’t just been snickering quietly towards his lap. “I’m not sorry.” 

“Yixing!” Baekhyun yowled, “Even you! How could you be like this?” He began viciously shaking Yixing’s shoulders while the boy tried not to laugh and failed, and Jongdae hopped up to pry him loose. Jongin flopped over on top of the struggle just to be a part of things, and ended up pinning Jongdae on top of Baekhyun, who was pinned on top of Yixing. He got a mouthful of Baekhyun’s tail. The screaming continued. 

Sehun walked in. Jongin forgot all about the shouting boys under him and watched Sehun’s beautiful face twist in disdain as he strolled into the suite with his broad shoulders and his perfect posture and surveyed the scene before him. Jongin wondered what that look would be like from point blank range as Sehun pinned him against a wall or something. 

“Jongin, stop making bedroom eyes at Snake Boy and get the fuck off!” 

Jongin gulped and rolled off with a weak ‘I wasn’t…” 

As soon as Baekhyun was free he got up and stomped towards Sehun, who looked at the angry cat like he was nothing more than a pair of old gym shoes that someone had left on the floor of the living room and stunk up the whole place again. 

“What the fuck is your problem, Snake Boy?” His ears were pressed flat to his head. Sehun blinked slowly and stared down his nose as the cat. “Why do you always walk in here with your stupid bitch face acting like you’re better than us?” Jongdae piped in with a ‘tell ‘em, Baek.’ “News flash, asshole, we were here first. You’re just the replacement of someone we actually liked. The least you can do is be fucking decent.” Jongin winced, even if he did kind of agree, and Yixing said, “That probably could have been said more nicely.” 

Sehun frowned and closed his eyes. Baekhyun was in the middle of taking a breath to continue when Sehun opened his eyes again, and whatever Baekhyun had wanted to say turned into a tiny whimper. 

The other boys couldn’t see Sehun’s face clearly from the profile view they had, but they could see Baekhyun’s ears go from angry to scared, and his tail flicked between his legs. His eyes went wide and terrified, and when Sehun took a small step closer his knees gave out and landed loudly on the floor. 

Yixing and Jongdae were on their feet in an instant with Jongin close behind. Sehun stepped around the shivering cat and strode back to his room. Jongdae shouted after him. “Yeah, you better fucking hide, you stupid reptile.” Sehun’s door slammed. 

Jongin knelt down and let Baekhyun curl into his side. He was shaking like a leaf, tears glistening in his eyes. “What did he do, Baekhyun?” 

Baekhyun shook his head and squeezed Jongin’s fingers so hard they hurt. 

The three boys managed to haul him back to his room for cuddles. It took him a full ten minutes to recover, and then he was moody and quiet. “I don’t know what it was, but just suddenly his eyes… I don’t know. Just… suddenly I thought I was going to die.” 

 

Sehun felt bad. Even two weeks after the incident with Baekhyun, the cat still wouldn’t even look at him. Not even Yixing smiled at him anymore, and pretty Jongin just stared coldly at the back of his head until Sehun wanted to go sleep in the common area. Whenever Sehun entered the room, Baekhyun would leave until he was gone. Sehun always forgot how much snake eyes affected cats. At least Baekhyun wasn’t a rodent hybrid of some kind. There had been a very rude rabbit hybrid that had passed out from fear one time. He slowly stripped off all his outer layers. 

The room was just this side of not warm enough, but he still stripped down to his bare skin and then leaned against the door until it was too cold to continue, and then crawled under the blankets. He wished he had somewhere to go, so he wouldn’t have to lie there and know that somewhere within fifty feet of him the only people on campus who’s names he knew hated him even more now. But nowhere else on campus was as warm as his room. He’d wanted to push his housemates away. Maybe he’d pushed them too far. 

It took him fifteen minutes before he got up and reluctantly pulled some clothes back on. He felt constricted and uncomfortable wrapped in so many layers, but it was better than the cold. Outside he heard the boys going about their day, laughing loudly about something ridiculous Jongdae had done. Sehun wondered if they even remembered his name. He wondered if anyone else on the entire campus knew his name. Probably not. Sometimes when he was tired and cold and alone, it was hard to convince himself that it was better this way. 

 

Baekhyun managed to convince everyone that Snake Boy was probably a serial killer. 

“Believe me, guys. It was just the look in his eyes. There was so much hate, so much evil, I thought I was going to die. I actually thought for a second that he was going to straight up kill me.” 

Jongdae was fully convinced. “I mean snakes are predators. He might have those kinds of instincts,” he said, like cats weren’t also predators. “In nature those instincts are necessary but in humans they’re just straight up psychotic.” 

Jongin was ready to buy it too. Baekhyun and Jongin had an intro level psychology class together, for the core credits. Today the professor had a PowerPoint on serial killers just for funsies, and the more Jongin thought about it the more it made sense. Sehun didn’t socialize at all. As far as the boys could tell, he only left his room for class and food. He was a predatory hybrid, jus like Jongdae had said. Jongdae had reminded him that cats were a domestic hybrid, whatever that meant, and didn’t have the same killer instincts. Sometimes Jongin was pretty sure the cat was only pretending to know what he was talking about. 

He did know that Baekhyun’s instincts about people were good. He had been the one to find Yixing and drag him into the friend group out of sheer infatuation, and now everyone else was just as infatuated with him as Baekhyun was. There had been one kid that pretty much everyone liked but Baekhyun had scared off early, and he ended up being a creep. So if Baekhyun was fucking terrified after just a look from the snake hybrid, then Jongin was willing to accept that Sehun was bad news. 

When the PowerPoint ended, Jongin had chills. He and Baekhyun spilled out into the hallway looking like somber detectives in a crime drama who had just figured out they were being targeted by Jack the Ripper. 

“Do you think he keeps the bodies in his room?” Baekhyun asked in a low voice.

“No, we would notice. Maybe he only kills once every couple years, like that one guy in the PowerPoint.” 

“Maybe he only kills small animals, just to hold him over. Maybe he takes them into his weird oven dungeon of a room and tortures them slowly.” 

Jongin shuddered. “Don’t say that.” 

“Do you think he’s going to target us? I bet it would be you, you’re the prettiest.” 

“What?! No! Y-you’re the prettiest! And he doesn’t like you!” 

Baekhyun flinched and shook his head. “Maybe it’ll be Yixing, because he was nice to him at first.” 

“No! Not Yixing!” 

They paused in the hallway, right outside Yixing’s classroom. On Tuesdays and Thursday’s, they all got out of class and ate lunch together. 

Baekhyun turned and faced Jongin, still looking like a man on the verge of cracking an especially grisly murder mystery. “Do you think we should kick him out?” 

“C-could we do that?” Some sick part of him really didn’t want to kick Sehun out. Jongin he would never be able to ogle him if he moved. 

“He makes me uncomfortable in my own home. I think that’s basis enough to get him moved.” 

“B-but what if he retaliates.” Jongin’s stomach twisted in alarm. 

Baekhyun’s eyes got darker. “I’ve got claws for a reason. Cats kill snakes sometimes, you know.” Baekhyun actually didn’t have claws, but Jongin decided not to mention that. 

“What kind of snake is he?” Jongin gasped at a sudden realization. “Do you think he’s venomous? He has access to our food! What if he slowly poisons… Baek?” 

While he was talking, Baekhyun’s eyes drifted over his shoulder and suddenly grew wide and horrified. He puffed up, opened his mouth, and let rip a violent hiss. Jongin jumped in surprise, then jumped again when something huge and heavy collided with his back and landed hard on his shoulder, nearly knocking him over. His heart beat up in his throat as his head whipped to the side to see what it was. 

It was Sehun. 

Sehun with his weird eyes wide and blank as he crashed into Jongin’s back. He looked pale and mindless, like something out of a horror film. Jongin panicked. 

 

Baekhyun tugged anxiously at his tail as they approached Yixing’s classroom. If he had had any doubt that Sehun was a serial killer before he was absolutely sure now. Probably just biding his time. At first Baekhyun had wondered if the weird guy just sat in his steamy room and watched porn all day. And granted that still might be the case, but now whenever Baekhyun pictured what was behind those doors, he imagined some kind of weird dungeon where Sehun planned his crimes. There was lots of black involved. A couple old torture devices. Maybe some really fancy red curtains because they fit for some reason. 

Sometimes he woke up at night in a cold sweat, remembering Sehun’s eyes. Those orbs of evil popped up in his dreams. Baekhyun couldn’t even remember exactly what had made them look different than usual, except that they had definitely been filled with malicious intent. Even if Sehun didn’t kill him first, Baekhyun had no doubt that Sehun wanted him dead. 

“Do you think we should kick him out?” 

“C-could we do that?” Poor sweet darling Jongin looked so scared. He wasn’t used to seeing the boy so alert. 

“He makes me uncomfortable in my own home. I think that’s basis enough to get him moved.” 

“B-but what if he retaliates.” Baekhyun’s jaw set. He was worried about that too. Even if they removed Sehun from their midst, Baekhyun would always be looking over his shoulder in case the snake came after him one day. But he wouldn’t go down without a fight. 

“I’ve got claws for a reason. Cats kill snakes sometimes, you know.” He hoped Jongin forgot that he didn’t actually have claws. 

“What kind of snake is he?” Jongin shifted nervously as he talked, and as he shifted to the left Baekhyun caught sight of something over his shoulder. Some tall, dark shape staggering menacingly towards them, as if he knew they were talking shit and was out for blood. “Do you think he’s venomous?” The dark shape was going to bite and kill them. The serial killer Oh Sehun was coming for them. He was definitely coming for them, and he looked out of his mind. “He has access to our food! What if he slowly poisons… Baek?” 

Baekhyun felt all his feline instincts rise up in alarm. Every hair stood on end. Sehun was too tall, too terrifying. Baekhyun couldn’t fight him. All he could do was try to scare Sehun away. If Jongin hadn’t been there, Baekhyun would have run like crazy. 

Baekhyun hissed like he had never hissed before in his life, the sound ripping out of his mouth so furiously his teeth rattled. It startled Jongin, but Sehun the monster just kept right on coming. Baekhyun thought his heart was going to stop as the snake crashed into Jongin from behind and pushed his loathsome face into sweet Jongin’s neck. 

 

One week in the beginning of March brought slightly warmer weather to campus. Sehun was very pleased, and left one of his jackets at home. He immediately regretted it. A little warmer didn’t mean warm, and he was still cold as fuck. 

His first period professor apparently thought it meant warm. She opened the windows a little bit. The temperature in the room couldn’t have been above fifty-five. “I’m one of those people who are always hot,” she said, “so I love it when it gets warm enough to open the windows.”

Great, another reason to hate this professor. She was famous for belittling students for asking questions. 

Even with his coat still on, Sehun felt his temperature dropping within five minutes. He could leave, but the professor was very strict about attendance, and he couldn’t afford to give up his grade. 

Thirty minutes in, and his fingertips were starting to go numb. Desperate times. He raised his hand. She looked kind of miffed for being interrupted. “Yes?” 

“Could we please turn the heat on?”

She crossed her arms, even as half the class nodded in agreement. 

“The heat is on. I can’t control that, or believe me it would be much colder in here all the time. I just have the windows open because it’s warm enough.” 

Sehun wasn’t sure above freezing counted as ‘warm enough.’ “Could we close the windows?” 

“Well, usually I’m very uncomfortable in this class, and right now I’m very comfortable, so I think you can stand to be uncomfortable for just a day. Okay? Let’s keep going with the lesson.” 

Well fuck. Sehun began feeling nervous. He couldn’t actually explain to her that he was cold blooded without letting the entire class know that he was a snake hybrid. He really should say something though; his body temperature was already dropping dangerously. Instead he sat back in his seat and wrapped his arms tightly around his body. The class was only an hour. He would be fine. 

Forty minutes and he couldn’t feel his hands. Maybe if he left really quietly he wouldn’t be counted absent. His fingers were starting to ache from the cold. He felt tired. Time moved too slowly. He put his head down on the desk for just a second to try to figure out what to do. 

When he opened his eyes again, the professor was shaking him awake. All the desks around him were empty. 

Fuck, he’d fallen asleep. It was honestly a miracle that she’d been able to wake him up at all. His hands and feet were both completely numb from the cold. He vaguely registered her saying something harshly about him falling asleep in class. His eyes began to drift closed again. 

He needed to get out of the cold room. Standing seemed like such a chore. It would be so much easier to just fall back asleep. She wouldn’t be able to wake him up again. Someone would call the nurse. They’d come get him and take him to someplace warm. He’d probably survive. 

The ‘probably’ was scary enough to have him forcing himself to stand up out of the desk. She asked him if he was listening. He leaned down to grab his backpack and ended up staggering into another row of desks and then falling on the ground. The ground was cold, but it was so easy to lie there. He reminded himself of the ‘probably’ and fought his way off the floor again. 

Professor lady looked alarmed, but she probably just assumed he was a dumb college student who hadn’t slept in days, or maybe that he’d come down with a zombie virus. She left the room with a final word that Sehun didn’t hear. The world felt sluggish, but he managed to only stagger into a few more desks before he made it out the door. 

The air of the hallway was not as warm as he had expected it to be. Just a little warmer, just enough to bring a little bit of awareness back into his mind. He unzipped his coat. No use insulating if his body temperature was colder than the air. But right now he needed heat, and these halls were only heated to about seventy-three degrees at most. 

There were warm bodies everywhere. Sehun had never wished more that he was human, or that he actually knew people. He could call someone, but his hands felt like mitts, numb and achingly cold. His fingers were blue. There was no way he could operate a phone. He couldn’t go back to the dorm. He would die before he got there. He could grab onto a random student, but he would either get punched or charged with harassment. He staggered down the hallway, eyes frantically searching for a heater, or faculty that knew about him, or something. 

A familiar warm shape caught his eye. Jongin. He looked as warm as always in his fuzzy sweater. He stumbled forward, just a little farther. Jongin didn’t like him. But he would understand if it was a life or death matter. And it was actually life or death. Sehun stumbled faster, which was a mistake, because he couldn’t stop his momentum, and he lurched into Jongin and almost knocked him over. He could vaguely hear Baekhyun hissing, and then Jongin screamed and thrashed, and then Sehun found himself lying on the cold floor.


	3. Chapter 3

Jongin’s heart was trying to beat its way out of his throat. 

“Fucking Christ! What the fuck, Snake Boy?” 

Sehun looked hazily up at him. His lips were a weird color. He looked sick. 

Baekhyun wouldn’t stop fucking hissing, which was doing nothing to calm Jongin’s frayed nerves. 

“You’re really fucking jumpy aren’t you?” Sehun’s thin voice was slurred oddly as he glared up at Jongin from the floor.

“Are you on drugs? What the fuck is wrong with you? You know what, I don’t care. Leave me alone.” He was surprised to see Sehun’s face fill with panic. He reached out and grabbed Jongin’s ankle with freezing fingers that were the same color as his lips. Kind of blue. 

“No! Please, help me. Help… I’ll die if you leave me here.” 

“Get away from him, Jongin! He’s a serial killer, remember?” 

Sehun directed a glare of disgust at Baekhyun, who was anxiously trying to smooth his ridiculously puffed up tail fur back into place. Jongin kneeled down next to him. He really didn’t look good. “Why will you die?” 

“I’m cold-blooded. Body temperature is dropping,” He managed, sounding either very tired or very drunk. His eyes drooped like he was about to fall asleep. That couldn’t be good. 

Jongin grabbed Sehun under the arms and dragged him towards an empty classroom. “Baekhyun, wait for Yixing.”

“What?! There’s no way I’m leaving you alone with that psychopath!” 

“When did I turn into a psychopath?” It was funny how Sehun could still sound so coldly disdainful even when he was literally dying. 

“When you glared at him and scared him half to death.” 

Sehun scoffed as Jongin finally managed to haul him through the door. “It was just a trick. Snake eyes.” 

“Oh, like how cobras make birds freeze and shit.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Damn, I wish I could do that.” He took off his sweater and Sehun’s coat, and then two sweaters underneath. He was wearing a soft flannel shirt. Jongin let him keep that on. “Am I doing the right thing here? I’m just doing what I learned in survival shows and stuff.”

“Yeah, you’re doing the right thing.” Jongin threw one leg over Sehun’s lap and pulled him in close while Sehun yanked the buttons of his shirt open. Jongin got a brief view of the most perfect body he’d ever seen before Sehun plastered himself to Jongin’s front and wrapped himself around Jongin like a python. His long, very cold arms found their way up into Jongin’s shirt, and his pointy chin dug into one of his shoulder.

Sehun snickered. “I’ll have to keep you blushing, you’re warmer that way.” 

Jongin blushed some more and then dragged Sehun’s coat up to cover them both. Sehun moaned in relief.

“Um. So what’s the plan here?” 

“You tell me.” 

“I only thought this far, dude. I guess we should call the health center?” 

“No, I’ll be fine if I can raise my body temperature.” 

“And how long will that take?” He began rubbing Sehun’s back. He felt broad and solid as a rock. 

“Just doing this? Forever. This will help, but I need to go back to my room.” 

“Oh. So we just get you warm again and you’ll be fine.” 

“Basically. I’ll probably get really out of it as I’m heating up again. Like I’m drunk or something.” 

Yixing and Baekhyun finally entered the room, Baekhyun’s ears defensively laid flat. His tail still looked a little bushy, despite his best efforts. 

“Baekhyun, I found out what the glare thing was. Apparently he can do something called snake eyes, like when cobras make their prey so scared they can’t move.” 

“Oh, so I’m prey now?” 

Yixing reached over and pinched his cheek. “Don’t be like that, Baekhyun. You said some pretty nasty things.” Baekhyun growled a little and pushed his hand away. 

Sehun’s freezing hands slid down over Jongin’s bare skin to grip his sides, and Jongin yelped and stiffened up. His hands were really fucking cold. “A-are you feeling a little warmer yet?” 

“A little.” His words slurred together and Jongin rubbed faster. Yixing took off his sweater and crawled under the coat so he could press himself up against Sehun’s back. Sehun moaned against Jongin’s neck, and Jongin felt himself blushing again. 

“You’re lucky we’re expert cuddlers,” Yixing said as he rubbed his hands up and down Sehun’s sides. Sehun was a pretty good cuddler too, Jongin thought, enjoying the way Sehun’s arms wrapped tight around his middle. Maybe it was just because he was dying. 

“I texted Jongdae.” Baekhyun said from about ten feet away. He seemed reluctant to get any closer. “How long are we going to be here? I don’t want to hang around until somebody has a class in here.” 

Jongin nudged Sehun for an answer and didn’t get one. He shook him. “Are you falling asleep, Sehun? You can’t go to sleep, wake up.”

Sehun stirred and hummed. “You called me Sehun.” 

“Y-yeah. Um. How long till you’re warm enough to move?” 

“Maybe like… ten minutes?” 

“Okay.”

The whole thing would have been terribly awkward if not for Yixing’s keeping it light. He asked Sehun about his major and how he got himself in this position, and Sehun answered for once. Something about the herpetology program and a really bitchy teacher. Jongdae slunk into the room and stood with his arms crossed next to Baekhyun. Jongin was beginning to feel very hot under the pile of coats and people. 

Finally, Sehun gave the okay to move. “We have to get back to the dorm quickly though. Don’t let me slow down.”

Jongin helped him jam sweaters down over his head and bundle up in all scarves and coats and things that were scattered across the floor. Then he and Yixing dragged him off the floor. It wasn’t too far to the dorm. Jongdae and Baekhyun broke off to get everyone lunch, including Sehun despite Baekhyun’s whining. They were almost there before Sehun started to drag his feet. 

“Come on, Sehun.” Jongin tugged at his wrist. They’d forgotten to put his gloves back on, and his fingers looked way too pale. 

Sehun whined. “I can’t, my legs won’t move faster.” 

Yixing got behind and pushed. A couple freshmen nearby stared while Sehun sulked and staggered forward. 

“We’re almost there, Sehun. Let’s go, come on.” 

Sehun tripped over his long legs and collided with Jongin’s shoulder. “Sorry, my legs are stiff. I’m sorry. Thank you for doing this. I know you hate me.” There was a weird new haziness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “M’tired. Can we just… sit down?” 

“No! Sehun, we need to get you to your room, where it’s warm.” 

“Right, right.” He didn’t really move any faster though. Yixing pushed harder. The door was in sight. 

“Is this what you meant when you said you’d act drunk?” 

“I feel drunk.” 

Yixing laughed. “Ah, good. We can deal with drunk people. We’re good at that.” 

Jongin nodded in agreement as they reached for the front door. “Baekhyun is a lightweight. We’ve dragged him back to the dorm in the cold more than a few times.” 

Sehun giggled and ran clumsily into a pillar. “He seems like the type. He’s cute.” The RA came out of the building and jumped as Sehun tipped sideways into Yixing, giggling. He really did look drunk. At 11:30 on a week day. She glared at them and gave them a wide berth. 

“You think Baekhyun is cute?” Jongin felt a little gnaw of disappointment. Dammit, he was the one with the crush on Sehun. Baekhyun didn’t deserve Sehun thinking he was cute. Jongin pouted because Yixing always told him he looked cute when he did that. Yixing muffled a snicker into Sehun’s shoulder and Jongin sulked some more. 

“Yeah, he’s cute. I like cats.” 

Yixing pushed them both into the elevator. “You could have fooled me. Most of the time it seems like you hate cats.” 

Sehun shook his head and wrapped himself around Jongin. “Cats hate me. They smell like chicken. And they’re funny. I wish they didn’t hate me.” 

The elevator rattled and jerked to life with the grace of a crippled elephant. Yixing frowned at the buttons. “Maybe they wouldn’t hate you if you didn’t give them a reason. You’re very hostile, you know.” 

Jongin would have said something too, but he was too busy trying to figure out the best place to put his hands. His head said shoulders. His heart said ass. That might be a little creepy considering Sehun was kind of drunk and dying. 

“I’m hostile because it’s easy.” 

“I mean of course it’s easy, but I’ve always found being nice to people is worth the extra effort.” 

Sehun shook his head, and Jongin finally decided to wrap his arms around Sehun’s back. 

“No, no you don’t understand. No one likes a black mamba hybrid. So many people hate snakes. I’m so tired of being slowly shut out by people who I tried to be friendly too. I feel better if they hate me on my own terms. That’s why I’m hostile.” 

The elevator dinged open, and for a second or two Jongin and Yixing didn’t move. Jongin pulled Sehun tighter and nuzzled into his soft, soft hair. Yixing patted his shoulder. 

“Give us a chance, Sehun. I don’t mind snakes at all.” 

His hands were still worryingly cold. Yixing opened the door and Jongin pulled him through. They staggered their way into Sehun’s room. 

Yixing stopped at the door. “Holy fucking shit.” 

Sehun sighed in relief and fell down on his bed while Jongin paused to stare incredulously at Yixing. 

“Fuck, Xing, language. Since when did you swear?” 

“I expected it to be hot. Not this hot.” 

Sehun began tugging off scarves. “Close the door, it’s getting colder.” 

Yixing reluctantly began stripping off his own layers as he closed the door behind him. Sehun fumbled with the buttons on his coat, and Jongin shrugged out of his own so he could help. Sehun relaxed and let Jongin undo his coat buttons, and unzip his hoodie, and the pull his arms out of his sleeves. 

“Shirt too.” Through the haze, he looked kind of challenging. His eyes were so weird. Jongin loved them. He cautiously tugged open the buttons of Sehun’s shirt and did his best not to gawk at all the lovely bare skin underneath. 

Sehun smiled and reached up to touch Jongin’s cheek. “Pretty Jongin. It’s too bad I’m not going to remember any of this.” He pulled Jongin down on top of him before the buttons were all undone. It was way too hot to cuddle, but Sehun had very strong arms, and Jongin was really into the stretch of collarbone that his lips had landed on. Sehun had called him pretty. He could overheat now and die a happy man. 

Yixing huffed. “Listen, guys. It’s too fucking hot. I’m going to go. You two behave yourselves, and Jongin, please do not die of heat stroke.” 

“I’ll do my best.” 

Yixing left. 

Pro: Cuddling alone with a super hot guy. 

Cons: Hot as Satan’s asshole. Hot guy too out of it to do anything sexy with. The awkwardness of suddenly being along with a guy he recently thought was a serial killer. The blanket underneath them was heating up. It must have been electric. Jongin could feel himself start to sweat. 

“I’m going to get really gross soon.” 

“S’fine. I was planning on taking a hot shower later anyway. Please stay. You’re warmer than the blanket gets.” He pushed his long arms up under Jongin’s shirt again, manhandling him easily to a more comfortable position, and Jongin felt heat stir between his legs. 

“Who’s cuter, me or Baekhyun?” 

Fuck. Jongin really needed to find the foot that was camping out in his mouth and evict it somehow. At least Sehun said he wouldn’t remember this. 

Sehun just chuckled and squeezed him tighter. “You are, of course.”


	4. Chapter 4

The last thing Sehun remembered was being pulled along towards the dorms, and the cats breaking off to go buy lunch. Baekhyun was being a dick as usual. Then things got really fuzzy, then Sehun woke up feeling warm and happy and unusually sticky. He realized that his shirt was falling off one shoulder, and Jongin was pressed up against his chest, asleep. Jongin’s hair stuck to his forehead. Most of his shirt was splotched dark with sweat. His skin gleamed, and he was flushed the most beautiful pink under his tan skin, and his lips were shimmering wet and parted. 

He was gorgeous. Sehun felt a wash of embarrassment. What kind of weird shit had he said to the kid while he was blacked out? While it was nice to have the pretty boy snuggled up with him in bed, despite how sweaty he was, how the fuck had he gotten there? Had Sehun begged him to stay? He cautiously jostled Jongin’s arm. 

Jongin immediately groaned low in his throat and rolled away onto his back, trying to spread out as much as possible. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up towards his collar bones, revealing a strong muscular physique and pretty soft brown nipples. He looked so good, hot and glistening, loose and spread out. He was panting a little. Sehun scooted away. 

“Jongin?” 

Jongin blinked awake. He had the prettiest dark brown eyes. His eyes drifted over to Sehun, widened a little, and then his cheeks bloomed deep pink as he sheepishly tugged his shirt back down. 

“Oh. Uh… S-sorry. Forgot where I was…” He pushed his wet hair off his forehead and grimaced. “Haha, I told you I was going to get pretty gross.” 

“Did you?” 

Jongin squirmed awkwardly. “Oh right. You said you wouldn’t remember…” 

Outside the room there was a crash and a howl, and then Jongdae yelling that you couldn’t make a human pyramid with two people and a rolling chair. Jongin sat up. “I’m. Um. Y-you’re okay now?” 

Sehun nodded. “All back to normal.” 

“That’s great!” Jongin rubbed the back of his neck and then made a face and wiped his hand off on Sehun’s sheets. “Yeah, I think I… I should go shower.” 

He clambered up off the bed, tried to climb over Sehun, and ended up tripping and landing in a confusing pile of sticky limbs on the floor. Sehun pressed his lips tight together and tried not to laugh at the flustered boy. 

“O-ow.” 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah. Um. I’m just going to go.” 

Jongin looked like he wanted to die. He was so fucking cute. 

“Jongin, what did I say to you?” 

Jongin stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned back around. “You, uh. Something about why you’re hostile all the time? Um. Listen, you don’t have to be hostile with us. Yixing and I aren’t bothered by snakes. He’s a literal angel anyway. Y-you seem lonely, and. You don’t have to be? I mean. If you want friends…” 

That was very sweet. Sehun would have felt very happy about all that if he hadn’t already decided to not take Jongin up on the friendship offer. There was a slightly more pressing question. “Did I tell you what kind of snake?” 

“Black mamba?” 

Sehun winced. “That’s a secret. Please don’t tell anyone.” 

“Um. Okay. I won’t” He paused like he was expecting more conversation. Sehun had nothing for him. Jongin turned awkwardly back to the door and left. Sehun listened carefully, and heard Baekhyun’s shrieking. 

“Ew look at Jongin’s t-shirt! Hahaha Jongin you’re the most awkward person I’ve ever met. You would get the chance to sleep with your crush and then sweat all over hi—AAAH DON’T TOUCH ME!” There was some sounds of crashing and furniture being mistreated, and everyone yelled a lot. Sehun giggled. Poor Jongin. He really was cute. It was nice to know he had a crush. 

 

For the third time in a week, Yixing watched Jongin pace around and screw up his nerve, stand awkwardly outside Sehun’s door for a minute or two, and then wander sadly back to his own room without knocking. Yixing was very tired of this nonsense. As Jongin disappeared, Yixing rolled up his sleeves and went to knock on Sehun’s door. 

After a minute, it opened a crack. 

“Can I help you?” 

Yixing plastered on his warmest smile, the one he’d copied directly from his mom, and pushed the door more open. Sehun reluctantly let him. 

“Put on something warm. I’ve selected you to help me cook dinner.” 

Sehun’s eyes flashed in confusion. “Why would I help you cook dinner? I have homework. We’re not friends.” 

“Not yet we’re not.” It was probably a good thing he’d decided to do this before Jongin did. The poor kid would have folded and left Sehun alone by now. Yixing was not so easily swayed. He pushed the door all the way open and strolled into Sehun’s room. It was reasonably neat and scorching hot. Yixing picked a nice tan pullover sweater off the back of a chair and pushed it into Sehun’s hands. “I’ll turn up the heat a little too. Come on.” 

Sehun’s mouth flapped open and closed a few times. “Yixing, I don’t—“ 

“Listen. The jig is up. We know you’re not actually an angry dick, and you’re just pretending to be to scare people away as a defense mechanism or something, but I’m not going to let you sit in here alone when you could have friends. Come on, this is not up for negotiation.” 

He pushed Sehun out of the room and into the kitchen, stopping to set the heat a little higher on the way. Sehun stood in the kitchen and tugged on the sleeves of his sweater. 

“Today we’re going to make chili. Can you make rice?” 

Sehun nodded and fished the rice cooker out of one of the drawers, and then yelped and almost dropped it as the front door slammed open and hit the wall. Yixing winced. The door handle dent in the wall would no doubt get even bigger. 

Jongdae stood like a conquering hero in the doorway. “I got a date!” 

“Who?” 

“A girl in my choir! She’s super cute and she likes my ears.” He reached up and pet them as he walked towards the kitchen. “And my tail. She asked if she could touch it and she blushed a lot and then she pet it for the rest of class. So I asked her to get coffee. Sometimes I fucking love being a hybrid.” 

He stopped when he almost ran into Sehun, who was still crouched on the floor clutching the rice cooker. 

“Oh hi, snake boy.” 

Sehun straightened to his full height and towered over the cat. He set the rice cooker down on the counter, maybe a little harder than necessary. “Hi.” 

“Man, I was having such a good day. Why the hell are you even out here right now?” 

Yixing grabbed a floppy magnet off the fridge and hurled it at Jongdae’s face. “He’s out here because I asked him to be. Listen, you two. As house leader I am demanding that everyone play nice. I don’t give a fuck that your animal sides are natural enemies. You’re both human and capable of reason and sensibility, so I expect you to put aside your instincts and behave like the lovely, friendly people that I know you both are.” 

Jongdae looked guilty. “Jeez, forgive me, but ‘friendly’ isn’t exactly the precedent Sehun has set since he got here.” 

“We’ve been over this, Jongdae. We didn’t know the whole story.” 

The cat backed out of the kitchen towards the couch, muttering. “S’no excuse.” 

“I’m asking for a little understanding and generosity here, Dae.” 

“Fine, fine.” He waved his ostentatiously clawed hand around and pulled out his phone. 

Sehun frowned at the rice cooker and said nothing. 

The snake turned out to be an excellent kitchen helper. He agreeably chopped all the vegetables Yixing passed him. When Jongdae made fun of Yixing’s accent and Yixing made fun of Jongdae’s fingernails, Sehun cracked a smile and giggled with them. Yixing’s heart swelled. 

Baekhyun exited his room holding a giant armful off food trash. Thank goodness, he was finally cleaning his room. Yixing could smell old grease and rotting burger remains all the way from the kitchen. Baekhyun froze in the doorway when he saw Sehun, and then immediately turned into Jongin’s room instead, trash still in hand, and slammed the door behind him. Yixing considered going after him. All in good time. He didn’t want to get any closer to the food trash. 

There was a loud yelp from Jongin’s room. 

“Did you just drop all your trash on my floor?! What is that smell? Get off my bed!” 

There were some loud thumps, and then Baekhyun yelling. “No listen! It’s happening, just like you said! The snake is out there making our food. He’s going to poison us.” 

Jongin’s voice flew up an octave. “N-no! I didn’t… That was before—he’s not going to—Baekhyun why are you like this?” 

There was another series of loud thumps, and then Baekhyun exited Jongin’s room, sans trash, and disappeared with a swish of his tail back into his own room. 

Yixing was very embarrassed. He glanced cautiously over at Sehun, who calmly stirred the chili with his eyebrows raised. 

“I’m very sorry about him.” 

“It’s fine.” A smile twitched at the edges of his lips. Yixing didn’t feel much better. He really didn’t like putting his foot down, but sometimes it needed to be done. 

“Excuse me a moment.” 

He left Sehun to stir the chili and talk to Jongdae. Hopefully they would interact. He gave Jongdae a significant look that he’d also borrowed from his mother and pointed from him to Sehun and then descended into the landfill that was Baekhyun’s room. 

Baekhyun, clearly no longer in a cleaning mood, was stretched out on his bed with his phone. His ears twitched towards the door when Yixing came in. 

“Wudup, Xing?” 

“Baekhyun, darling.” 

“Oh boy.” 

 

It took exactly ten minutes for the food trash smell to become far too much. Jongin had really been expecting Yixing to force Baekhyun back into his room to remove the filth, but judging by the odd series of growls, bangs, and philosophical, behavior critical rants drifting ambiently from Baekhyun’s room, they were both a little preoccupied. 

Jongin stared down at the pile of old paper trays from the canteen and hamburger wrappers. There were rock hard fries strewn across the rug. This was not how he’d planned to spend his afternoon. He’d wanted to come home and talk it out with Sehun, or just say hello, but instead he had to greet Sehun again with an armful of trash and the sounds of Baekhyun getting the life lectured out of him in the background. Last time he and Sehun had talked, he’d been completely drenched in sweat, which was charming, and Jongin had been thinking of ways he could maybe amend that impression, but awkwardly explaining that he really didn’t think Sehun wanted to poison them while he juggled Baekhyun’s hazardous waste hadn’t quite made the list. 

There were a number of plastic bags floating around the room. Maybe if he didn’t carry the junk around by the armful like Baekhyun he wouldn’t look quite as stupid. He dug a few bags out from under the bed, one from under the rug, and one from between his blankets on the bed. He’d been hearing it crinkle around whenever he turned over for about a month, but now he had a lovely excuse to extract it. 

True to form, Jongin kicked the doorframe as he tried to leave his room gracefully, and dropped one and a half bags of food trash on the floor while he cursed loudly. A loud hiss followed by louder scolding came from Baekhyun’s room. Gawd, why did everything have to be so embarrassing. Sehun would never want to be friends with any of them at this rate. 

One and a half bags off food trash vanished from the floor, and then the rest of the bags were lifted from his hands, and Jongin looked up through embarrassingly wet eyes to find glorious Sehun in his softest-looking tan sweater standing right next to him. 

“Are you okay?” 

“I kicked my foot. I mean door. Kicked my door.” 

“That sucks. This smells. I’m going to go throw it away in the hallway.” He wandered off, ass looking wonderful, and Jongin regretted everything he’d ever done in life. The suite door closed behind Sehun. 

“Jongdaaaaeee!” 

The cat patted the couch beside him. “Usually I’m the one whining.” Jongin hobbled over. His toe still felt like it was on fire. 

“Why am I so awkward?” 

“I don’t know, Jongin. I’ve thought long and hard about it, but it really is a mystery. Maybe you got dropped on your head as a kid.” 

“Maybe…” His mom might have mentioned dropping him once, Jongin couldn’t remember. He curled up with his head on Jongdae’s thigh and clutched his foot. 

Sehun came back in and went right back to the stove, and Jongin could do nothing but watch miserably from Jongdae’s lap. 

Things had gone quiet on the BaekXing warzone. After an extended silence completely unbroken by hissing and banging, Baekhyun’s door swung open, and out strolled a grumpy looking Baekhyun, followed closely by a very pleased looking Yixing. Jongin sighed with relief. Baekhyun wouldn’t be a dick to Sehun then. 

“Don’t poison my food, you fucking reptile.” 

Jongin squeezed his foot a little too tight and yelped in pain. Baekhyun wandered into the kitchen and tucked his nose into Sehun’s back. Sehun’s eyes went wide in surprise, but Jongin could see him trying not to grin. He remembered what Sehun had said about liking cats and thinking Baekhyun was cute. He wished he hadn’t crippled himself, or he would be helping Sehun cook and getting all his attention instead of the stupid cat. 

Jongdae’s face appeared upside-down in his line of sight. “Are you whining because your toe hurts, or because you’re jealous?” 

“Leave me alone, Dae.” 

Yixing plopped down on the floor in front of them and handed Jongin a bag of ice. “Why is it that I can’t leave you alone for twenty minutes without you hurting yourself? I’m sorry you had to clean up all of Baekhyun’s food trash by yourself, by the way. I should have taken care of that first.” 

“S’fine.” 

Yixing smiled and pet his hair, which felt so nice, and Jongin realized he needed to stop pouting and act like a grown adult if he wanted Sehun to like him. 

But damn, it was really hard not to pout when his foot hurt so bad. The ice helped. The way Sehun and Baekhyun were having a hushed conversation in the kitchen didn’t. What could they possibly be talking about? 

Yixing giggled. 

“What?” 

“Nothing, nothing. You’re just really fucking cute when you pout.” 

God damn it. Jongin whined and turned over so he could hide his face in Jongdae’s hip.


	5. Chapter 5

Yixing was a persistent bastard. Sehun had to give him that. Every time he tried to come home and collapse in his room, Yixing waylaid him and steered him over to the couches to interact. Today someone had brought out Uno. Sehun plopped down on the couch between Jongin and Baekhyun. 

“Thanks for joining us, asshole. Do you even know how to play?” 

Sehun elbowed Baekhyun in the ribs and reached for the deck. “Yeah, this is one of the few games I do know how to play actually. The scientists used to play this with me back at the lab.” 

Jongin glanced up curiously. “Did you grow up in a lab?” 

“Sort of. The scientists took turns housing me, but they were all workaholics, so I spent most of my time in a lab anyway. I still went to school and shit.” He pulled his cards against his chest as Baekhyun clambered up on his knees and leaned heavily against Sehun’s side. 

“He’s got red cards, Jongin. Don’t play red cards.” 

Jongin mumbled something unintelligible and played a red four on top of the green four that Yixing put down. Baekhyun scoffed but didn’t move. He was warm. There was that delicious chicken smell. He wasn’t as warm as Jongin though. 

“Thanks.” 

Jongin gave him a shy smile and ducked his head. 

The shyness didn’t last. Sehun sat back with no more cards in his hands, without even saying Uno, and Jongin grabbed the nearest throw pillow and hit him with it. 

“I was so close! You didn’t say Uno!” 

“Too late.” He reached up and scratched Baekhyun’s ears, and Baekhyun threw his hand of thirty or forty cards on the table and sighed happily. 

“Right, new game, fuck keep doing that Sehun. Never stop. You’re not allowed to play next round. Just keep scratching… just like that… ah…” 

Jongin giggled and attacked Baekhyun with another pillow, and then Jongdae jumped right on top of the table and brought his own pillow down on Jongin’s head. Yixing scooted away. Baekhyun swung wildly and hit Jongdae’s leg and Sehun’s face in the same swing. 

That was enough of that. Sehun spluttered and slid cautiously off the couch, away from the mayhem, and settled behind Yixing on the floor. On the couch, Jongin held Baekhyun down while Jongdae beat him with two pillows. 

“Having fun?” 

Sehun laughed a little to himself. “It’s a bit much.” 

“Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks for playing Uno with us.” 

That sounded like permission to go. Thank fuck. “Thanks for inviting me.” He stood and slipped off to his room. He caught sight of Jongin, who looked kind of sad as he held Baekhyun’s arms and watched Sehun go. 

 

Jongin hated how it was so easy for Baekhyun to make friends. The cat could just force his way into people’s lives without any fear of not being accepted. He watched with a frown as Baekhyun draped himself over Sehun’s lap so he could whisper in his ear, and Sehun looked so pleased. He played with Baekhyun’s hair and held him close, even when Baekhyun started jabbing him repeatedly in the sides. And while it was cute how much Sehun liked cats, Jongin was painfully jealous. 

Jongdae slid up to Jongin’s side in the kitchen with his nose buried in his phone. “That’s rough buddy.” 

Jongin whined. “Are they doing this on purpose?” 

“To be honest I don’t think this is about you, Jongin. I just think they really like each other.” 

Why did cats have to be so brutally honest? Jongin wanted to curl up on the kitchen floor and whine. 

“U-um as friends of course. Jongin, are you okay?” 

“I dunno, I’m dumb. I just thought maybe…” He honest to god thought that he and Sehun had something there for a bit. Sehun had chosen to cuddle with him when he was cold. He’d told Jongin he was cuter than Baekhyun. They’d napped together for fucks sake. But Jongin kept fucking up and looking like an idiot and hitting Sehun with pillows and scaring him off. 

Sehun and Baekhyun appeared in the kitchen and dove into the refrigerator. “I can’t believe you’ve never had a hot pocket.” 

“Sorry?” 

“Nini, where did we put them?” 

“Oh. Um.” He joined Baekhyun in the digging. Sehun giggled. 

“You call him Nini?” 

Beakhyun yanked out a pack of hot pockets and flung them on the counter. They slid off onto the floor. 

“We do! Because he’s so damn cute. Look.” Jongin braced himself for Baekhyun’s ‘tour de Nini,’ which he had given both Yixing and Minseok on separate occasions. Baekhyun reached up and squished Jongin’s cheeks with both hands. “He’s got squishable cheeks, and these cute pouty lips, give us a pout, Jongin.” 

Jongin really tried not to, but he’d been pouting for the last ten minutes, and sometimes it was hard to shake. 

“Aww, look at that cute pout. And his eyes get really wide. And he’s got all this pretty dark skin that kind of matches his hair. He looks like a teddybear. And he’s so huggable. Aw, he’s blushing! Look!” 

Jongin tried to mutter something about Baekhyun embarrassing him, but even he couldn’t understand the words he was saying, so he just tried to turn around. Baekhyun squeaked and pinched his cheeks. 

“Do the thing where you get really sexy. Show Sehun your smolder thing.” 

Well, he did really want Sehun to see him be confident and sexy for once. He tried. But he was blushing too hard. He got half way to a smolder and then broke down into giggles and tried to hide his face in the refrigerator. 

Sehun muttered “Holy shit” under his breath while Baekhyun and Jongdae shrieked and leapt on him. 

“Oh my god Sehun look at him! Behold the cuteness of Nini!”

“Oh my god guys stop.” 

Jongdae wrapped himself around his middle, and Baekhyun hung dramatically off his neck. “Have you ever seen anything so cuddlable?! Love me Nini!” 

“He’s so firm and huggable!” 

“He’s so snuggly when he’s sleepy which is all the time!” 

“He’s so awkward it’s the cutest fucking thing!” 

“He has no butt!” 

“He claps with his feet!”

“He giggles!” 

Jongin tried very hard to stop giggling and just ended up squeaking and collapsing to the floor under a pile of cats. Jongdae rolled off shrieking at the top of his lungs, and Jongin got a clear view of Sehun, who was leaning against the opposite counter with a hand over his mouth to hide what was definitely a wide grin. He might have been blushing too a little bit. Jongin blinked up at him through his eyelashes because he knew that was adorable, but then got too embarrassed and hid in Baekhyun’s shoulder. 

 

Jongin must have been a remarkably patient person. Anyone would have to be to put up with being the subject of a tug of war game between two cats. They were in the middle of the living room floor now. Jongin continued to giggle helplessly as Baekhyun pulled under his arms and Jongdae screeched from where he was wrapped around Jongin’s knees. Sehun picked the hot pockets up off the floor and examined the directions. Easy enough. He pulled a plate out of the cabinet and dumped six or seven hot pockets onto it and stuck them in the microwave. 

“What is going on?” 

Yixing appeared at Sehun’s side with sleep mussed hair and a bleary look in his eyes. 

“Um. Baekhyun was telling me how cute Jongin was and then they just started fighting over him.” 

“Poor kid. Did he pout for you?” 

Sehun pursed his lips to keep from smiling too much and nodded. “He’s really cute.” 

Right on cue Jongin squealed from the floor as Baekhyun sank his teeth into his butt. 

“What’s in the microwave?” 

“A pile of hot pockets.” 

“Oh good.” 

They watched as Jongin whacked frantically at Baekhyun’s head and Jongdae pulled his tail. Neither cat had gained any ground in their quest to drag poor Jongin to their perspective rooms. One of the hot pockets in the microwave exploded. 

“Oh dear.” Yixing jumped on damage control. “You should go rescue him.” 

“What?” 

Yixing grabbed some paper towels and removed the pile of hot pockets from the microwave. The exploded one had splattered itself all over the inside of the microwave and the other hot pockets. “Go sweep him off his feet and rescue him from those bad cats.” 

Sehun laughed nervously. “He’s fine. I um. I don’t want to, um.” He didn’t want to send the wrong message when he wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing. Jongin was cute, and he obviously liked Sehun, but Sehun didn’t really know if he wanted any kind of relationship. The whole ‘friends’ thing was a work in progress as it was, and he didn’t think he was doing very well at that. “Let me clean out the microwave, Xing. Its my mess.”

Yixing looked surprised and grateful, and Sehun thought that if friends were the kind of people who wanted you to clean up their messes for them, then he didn’t want any. By the time the microwave was clean and Baekhyun had finally managed to drag Jongin as far as his bedroom door, the hot pockets were cool enough to eat. He stuffed one in his mouth. Non bad. Yixing picked one up and immediately dropped it. “How are you not burning yourself right now?” 

“Sometimes I warm up by eating or drinking really hot things, so I’ve built up a tolerance for hotter food over the years.” 

“That cold-blooded thing must be a real nuisance.” 

“You have no idea.” Speaking of. He snuggled up against Yixing’s back. The boys had been good about keeping the common area warmer, so it took longer for Sehun to start feeling cold, but it didn’t take forever. 

Yixing patted his arm soothingly. “Boys! Hot pockets are ready!” 

Jongdae dropped Jongin’s feet and hurried to the kitchen. Jongin was dragged screaming into Baekhyun’s room and the door slammed behind them. 

“What the fuck happened to these hot pockets?” 

“The microwave attacked it.” 

There was a loud scream from Baekhyun’s room and something slammed against the door. 

“They’re still good though. And we cleaned out the microwave already.” 

Jongdae poked at a hot pocket and put it gingerly in his mouth. “S’hot.” 

Baekhyun’s door opened and out came Jongin with Baekhyun clinging to his front koala style. The cat’s tail whipped back and forth as Jongin walked up and grabbed a hot pocket without acknowledging Baekhyun’s presence on his person. 

“What happened?” 

“I got molested.” 

Baekhyun squawked and pulled his face out of Jongin’s shoulder. “I was the one who got molested!” 

“You molested me first!” He tried to take a bite out of his hot pocket, but Baekhyun bit it out of his hand before he got the chance. Jongin stared forlornly at the mangled remains of his hot pocket. 

“Details. Help me out here, Jongin. I’m slipping.” 

Jongin hiked him up effortlessly and gave him a hug while he nibbled his hot pocket over Baekhyun’s shoulder. Very cute. 

“Are you guys sure you these don’t need more time?” Jongin waved around the last little bit of his hot pocket. “This one is barely warm.” 

Yixing frowned. “I hate our microwave.” 

Even with the hot food, Sehun could feel himself slipping past his comfortable temperature range. “Thanks for the hot pockets, Baek.”

“No problem.” 

“I’m going to go warm up.” 

He gave the group a nod and then moved to exit, and Jongin gave him a little wave and a ‘bye’ but then looked shy about it and continued to eat his hot pocket and stare at the floor. Baekhyun snorted and Jongin bent over to try to get him to fall off. Holy fuck so cute. 

Quite enough interaction for one day though. After years of nothing but middle aged scientists, a house full of rowdy boys was a lot to get used to.


	6. Chapter 6

The canteen was always full of people at seven thirty. Jongin wondered why he never remembered that. He placed his order at the grill and prepared to wait forever as they forgot his order and then tortured his food before serving it to him. He could usually find a comfortable spot camping out against a pile of soda boxes as he waited. 

I tall figure caught his eye, dressed in dark clothes and wearing a few too many layers for being indoors. Sehun stood a little way away, eyes fixed firmly on the grill with his usual intense expression. Even in all his layers he looks unapproachable and suave as hell. 

Jongin glanced between Sehun and the stack of soda boxes. This was a dilemma. He should obviously go talk to Sehun, but he would definitely be weird and awkward and maybe Sehun didn’t want to talk to him. Then he’d be stuck standing next to a very scary Sehun and it would be weird. But on the other hand he’d look very rude if Sehun noticed Jongin was there and didn’t say hi. And he didn’t want to look like a dick. But Sehun looked so scary. But he wouldn’t impress the guy by avoiding him. He sidled closer and tried not to look like he was about to shit himself. 

“H-hey. Um, Hello.” 

Nailed it. 

Sehun glanced sideways with a look so cold Jongin thought for a minute it might have been snake eyes. Then he saw who it was, and his scary face melted into a warm, friendly smile. Wow that was much nicer. Jongin sagged with relief. 

“Whoa, you looked really scary there for a second.” 

“Sorry about that. That was my ‘leave me the fuck alone’ face, but its you, so its fine.” 

So it was intentional. “Those weren’t snake eyes were they?” 

“No! No way, if they were snake eyes you would know. Snake eyes are much much scarier.” 

Damn, now Jongin was really curious. “Have you ever done them to yourself in the mirror?” 

Sehun nodded. “It wasn’t that scary to me since I’m already a snake hybrid. It works a lot better on small mammal hybrids. But my human side was very unnerved.” 

“Oh, okay.” Some asshole behind the counter dropped about five order slips on the floor and came back up with three. Jongin hoped his wasn’t one of the lost ones. 

“What did you order?” 

“Burger.” 

“Me too.”

They stood in silence. Jongin couldn’t tell if it was a normal silence or if it was an uncomfortable silence. After three minutes or so Jongin tried to think of something to say and couldn’t, which definitely made it an awkward silence. For him at least. All the burgers on the grill looked ready to be flipped, and that was a good sign except for the fact that the burger-flipper was off gossiping with the pizza dude. 

“I don’t usually come here. I wasn’t expecting the line to be so long.” 

Jongin nodded. “I come here all the time but I always forget how bad it is. When did you order?” 

“About five minutes ago.” 

“Me too.” 

Burger flipper was back. He flipped the burgers. The middle row looked kind of burned. The ones on the outer edges looked fine though. 

“How were classes?” That was a legitimate question right? Not too bland or generic?   
“Bad. I have this one teacher who really likes to keep the room cold. She’s the one who nearly killed me that one time.” 

“Ah.” That was why they were friends now. Jongin should send her flowers. No wait, that was awful. Jongin should send her dead flowers. 

“So last week I had a talk with her to tell her why I needed it warmer, and she didn’t believe me, told me to get the fuck out of her office and all that.”

“Shit. Dead flowers it is.”

“What?”

“Huh?” Oops, Jongin hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Sehun shrugged it off and continued. Thank goodness. 

“Anyway, the next class she opened the windows again and I had to leave ten minutes in. Then she sent me an email about how she was removing seven whole points from my final grade.” 

“Holy fuck did you talk to somebody?” 

“Yeah. There’s a professor who teaches some bio classes, but he’s also in charge of all the hybrids on campus and he acts as their doctor in the health center, so I had him come talk to her again with me.” 

“Dr. Frank?”

“Yeah him. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you know who he is, since you live with Jongdae and Baekhyun. Anyway, the bitch keeps her classroom warm now, but she fucking hates me, so its really hard for me to do well.” 

“Shit, dude. You should talk to someone about that.”

Sehun sighed. “No, I need to take at least one more class with her to graduate. I don’t want to fuck with her anymore. She has tenure, and no one else teaches those classes.”

“That’s rough.” 

Sehun nodded. The burgers looked more than done on the other side too. Burger guy came by and picked up the spatula, and Jongin leaned forward in anticipation. Burger guy tossed the burgers one by one onto the fryer. Most of the were burnt. Jongin watched forlornly as any remaining moisture began to sizzle out of them. 

“I don’t think I’m going to eat here again.” 

“It’s awful.” 

More burgers got loaded on the fryer. Jongin realized with chagrin that his burger might not even be in the last batch. He had another ten minutes at least of waiting. 

“How long have you lived with hybrids?” 

Hot damn, Sehun was still talking to him. This was going so well. “About two and a half years. I was Baekhyun’s roommate freshman year, and now most of my friends are hybrids. Minseok is a hybrid too.” 

“Was it a culture shock?” 

Jongin giggled and nodded. “At first I though it was just Baekhyun who was completely shameless, but then I met Jongdae, and he was too. And I was surprised how many actual cat-like habits and traits they have, like turning in circles before they sleep and ignoring people and general passive-aggressiveness. One time I saw Baekhyun lick his arm a few times, and then he looked really confused and embarrassed about it. Why are hybrids so blasé about sex, by the way?” He glanced up to find Sehun smiling down at him like he’d actually enjoyed Jongin’s story. 

“I think it’s because since we don’t consider ourselves human, we feel like we’re above the human stigmas that come with sex. To us, it’s fun and it feels good. Not that Baekhyun masturbating in front of people isn’t a little classless and weird, but its not that big a deal.” 

The burgers in this new batch were even more neglected than the first. 

“Do you like Baekhyun or hate him? Sometimes I can’t tell.” Just the previous day Jongin had watched Sehun push Beakhyun back onto the couch every time he tried to stand up until Baekhyun was completely red and hissing. 

“He decided the tone of our friendship would be antagonistic, and he’s going to have to pay the price.” 

Jongin was less worried now about Baekhyun stealing his man then he had been several days ago. He was worried, however, about whether or not his burger was ever going to come off the grill. They would have been delicious and perfectly medium-well several minutes ago. Now they were way past well done, plus a little shrunken and slightly charred. Burger guy finally came over and started throwing them on the fryer for ultimate dryness. 

“What was Baekhyun talking about when he said you could do a smolder thing?” 

Bless Sehun’s cold blooded heart for bringing it up. “Oh, hehe. Um. Yeah I failed at that pretty bad the other day. I guess when I dance I wear very different facial expressions.” 

“Show me?” 

“O-okay.” Now was his chance to be confident and sexy. He could do this. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, thought of a sexy routine he did once, and then turned to Sehun in full smolder mode. He had a dark and mean one that he had to do with his chin tipped down, looking up through his eyelashes, and then if he tipped his head up that one could turn into cold and detached. That one became his most breathtaking smirk. 

“How’s this?” 

Sehun’s eyes were really wide. He looked a little pink in the cheeks. “Holy shit.” 

“Yeah?” Smirk had to go. Jongin gave up and grinned instead, while Sehun took a few dramatic deep breaths with his gloved hand over his heart. 

“Damn, Yixing warned me, but I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Really? Was it that good?” 

“Yeah. You could be a model or something.” 

Jongin giggled and shifted giddily from foot to foot, which probably wasn’t the most dignified thing to do, so he brought himself to a stop and tried to control himself. Sehun liked his smolder. Day made. Better change the subject before he started squeaking. 

“We’ve been here for a while. Are you cold?” 

“A little. I’ll be fine for a bit though. Burgers are almost done.”   
“Burgers were done like five minutes ago, but the kitchen crew didn’t notice.” A number of pathetic tortured black and brown patties were being scraped off the grill and onto perfectly good buns. Sehun’s number got called first, then Jongin’s. Sehun sighed sadly down at his pathetic excuse for a burger. 

“Are they always like this?” 

“Pretty much. Let’s go pay for these dry, shriveled pucks of sadness.” 

Sehun was a cool dude. It was really nice to get to talk to him without the other boys around. He felt more comfortable with the snake already. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to just be friends. 

 

“I have a theory.” Baekhyun’s voice was kind of muffled in Sehun’s chest.

“Hmm?” Sehun hummed into Baekhyun’s hair. The cat was so warm. After so many years of cats absolutely hating him, it was so nice to have one or two actually be friendly. If Baekhyun actually counted as friendly. 

“I think Sehun is secretly in love with me.” 

Jongin snorted from beside them on the couch. 

“You got me. I’m in love with you.” 

“I knew it.” 

Jongin grinned. He didn’t really seem bothered anymore when Baekhyun and Sehun play flirted. Sehun wasn’t sure if that meant he was used to it or his crush on Sehun had faded. 

Yixing wandered in wearing nothing but a tiny pair of running shorts, because these days they kept the suite pretty damn warm, and the boys dressed for summer while they were home. Baekhyun was wearing a baggy t-shirt and his underwear. He looked like he wasn’t wearing pants. Jongin had on a douchy bro-tank with the caption ‘my ex-girlfriend was a total beach’ on it. He had already been thoroughly questioned and punished for its existence. Sehun was wearing his warmest fleece-lined sweatpants and fuzzy socks with slippers and a sweater.

“I just texted Jongdae and told him to grab sugar on his way home.” 

“Is there sugar to buy between here and the science building?” 

Yixing shook his head. “He’ll have to go off campus. He wasn’t thrilled about it. He told me to order it online instead.” 

Baekhyun squirmed and tried to crawl off Sehun’s lap. Sehun looped an arm around his waist and held him tight. 

“Xing, I’m stuck. Could you help me please?” 

Yixing blinked in confusion and then noticed Sehun’s arm around his middle. “I don’t think I could help you if I tried.” 

Baekhyun thrashed, but Sehun was a lot stronger. “Fucking python.” 

Sehun did his favorite threatening snake hiss. Baekhyun whined and flailed, and Sehun’s hiss got cut off when Baekhyun’s hand whacked against the side of his head. 

“Jesus, Sehun. Don’t do that!” 

“…Ow.” 

Jongin snuggled into the couch next to them and giggled with toe curling cuteness and Sehun let Baekhyun wriggle out of his arms and into Yixing’s instead. Poor mostly naked Yixing looked a little flustered. Baekhyun nibbled his collarbone. 

“Baek, it’s really hot in here.” 

“It is. I’d noticed. I blame you.” He stroked Yixing’s abs. Yixing gently tried to push him away, but Baekhyun went limp against Yixing’s chest until Yixing had no choice but to catch him to keep him from falling. 

“If you’re hot, you should come cuddle,” Sehun suggested. He was felling a tiny bit chilly now that Baekhyun was off his lap. 

Yixing lowered Baekhyun to the floor and gently shoved him under the coffee table. “It’s too hot for cuddles.” Baekhyun’s tail whipped out from under the coffee table on the other side, and Jongin firmly placed his foot on it. 

“Hey! Who’s on my tail?!” 

“It’s Sehun.” 

“No it isn’t! Sehun is wearing shoes!” He tried to wrestle out from under the coffee table to attack Jongin, but Sehun planted both feet in front of him and didn’t let him out. He cooed affectionately as Baekhyun hissed. 

“I swear every last one of you will pay for this insult! You can’t use my cat features against me! That’s racist!” 

Jongin looked nervously at Sehun for confirmation. “It isn’t.” 

“Shut up Sehun! You don’t even have any snake features besides your eyes! You wouldn’t get it!” Yixing let Baekhyun out the other side because he was too sweet to be real. Baekhyun reappeared puffed up and red faced.

“You don’t know that. I’m always covered up.” 

Baekhyun’s opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking thoughtful.

“I’ve seen you shirtless,” Jongin supplied. 

“You’ve seen my chest, but that’s only, like, fifteen percent of me.” 

“I think it’s more than that,” muttered Jongin under his breath, followed by something unintelligible containing the words ‘broad’ and ‘long-waist,’ and then blushed a lot. Well, that answered the question of whether or not he still had a crush. 

“I got it.” Beakhyun stood dramatically up on top of the coffee table. “I bet Sehun has a weird snake dick. Xing, I need you to google snake dicks for me.” 

Yixing hesitantly pulled out his phone. Sehun laughed. “That would be your first guess.” 

“Whoa, snake dicks are really weird.” 

Baekhyun hopped off the coffee table to take a look at Yixing’s phone, and his eyes got really wide. “Ew.” 

Jongin was very quiet. 

“Oh my god I can’t believe Sehun has one of these. Or like. Two. Because there’s two of them.” 

“Look at you, jumping to conclusions.” 

“Well you haven’t told me you don’t have one yet, which is basically confirming that you do.” 

Sehun stood and circled around to where Baekhyun was staring at Yixing’s phone. “Why don’t you find out?” He reached out for Baekhyun’s hand and guided it towards his waistband. 

The room was silent. Baekhyun hesitated, and then slipped his hand into Sehun’s pants and felt down over the front of Sehun’s briefs. His fingertips tickled over his shaft. 

Baekhyun’s lips parted as he felt around and carefully squeezed out the shape of his cock in his underwear. Sehun waited. Baekhyun slipped his hand inside the underwear too, and Sehun found himself getting full on fondled by Baekhyun’s pretty hand. If felt good. Baekhyun’s fingers slid down the full length of his cock and squeezed around the head. His fingertip slid over the slit, and then he groped around for Sehun’s balls and rolled them once in his palm before finally retracting his hand. 

“Okay, so no snake dick, you just have a fucking anaconda in your pants.” 

“Why did I ever room with hybrids,” Yixing groaned dramatically, and headed back to his room. 

Over on the couch, Jongin was still curled up in the cushions with very very wide eyes. Baekhyun gave him a look and then held his fingers a certain length apart and mouthed some words at Jongin, who’s face turned bright pink. Sehun flopped back down on the couch, pleased. 

“Do you want a feel, Nini?” 

Jongin turned, if possible, even more pink. He had one pretty hand curled up by his mouth and doe eyes shining from under his lashes. “I mean kinda,” he muttered, and Sehun’s eyebrows shot up. Baekhyun cackled. 

“You expected him to say no, didn’t you? Nini looks adorable and innocent all the time, but he’ll surprise you. I bet he’s secretly a freaky slut.” 

Jongin turned his back on them. “I changed my mind.” 

“NO! Touch his dick! I wanna see this!” 

“No.” Jongin hugged a couch pillow. Sehun felt bad. 

“I’m sorry, Jongin, I was teasing, but you really can touch it if you want.” 

“I don’t want to.” 

“Stop lying!” Baekhyun screeched, and Jongin hid his face in a pillow and tried to leave the couch, but both Sehun and Baekhyun jumped on him and pinned him down. 

“Jongin, I’m very sorry for teasing you. That was mean of me.” 

“TOUCH HIS DICK!” 

Jongin made a cute noise somewhere between a giggle and a whine. The back of his neck and ears were bright red. He was burning hot, the perfect heat source, and all of a sudden Sehun really wanted Jongin to touch his dick too. 

“You really can if you want. You’re so warm. It would probably help me warm up.” 

“No.” 

“Please?” 

“TOUCH HIS DICK!” 

Yixing burst out of his room with a loud slam. Jongin jumped violently in Sehun’s arms. “Oh for fucks sake! Both of you stop harassing Jongin! Get off him!” 

Baekhyun hopped off immediately, but Sehun was more comfortable than he’d been in a while. “But he’s warm.” 

“I thought you weren’t a constrictor,” Jongin muttered. Yixing pulled Sehun off by the shoulders. 

“Leave Nini alone. When he gets too stressed out he starts crying.” 

How fucking adorable. Jongin uncurled so he could sulk up at Yixing with those cute pouty lips. “Do not.” 

“Do to. Remember that time those two really hot shirtless guys started flirting with you while you were tipsy freshman year and you clammed up and started crying even though you wanted to fuck both of them?” 

“I thought we weren’t supposed to bring that up,” Baekhyun said from the back of the couch as Jongin mashed his face back into the pillow. 

“Sometimes I just can’t help it.” 

Jongdae slammed open the front door. Their neighbors must hate them. One of these days the door handle was going to get stuck in the opposite wall. He marched in and threw a bag of sugar on the counter. 

“There’s your damn sugar, Xing. What are you guys doing to poor Jongin? Leave him alone. You know he cries when he gets too stressed.” 

Jongin groaned loudly and stood up off the couch and headed for his room, eyes looking suspiciously shiny. Sehun had never felt so soft inside. Yixing frowned. “I’ll go take care of that. Thanks for the sugar, Jongdae.” 

“No problem. 

Without Jongin under him, Sehun felt too cold. “I need to go warm up.” 

Baekhyun nodded. “You do that. Fun’s over anyway. He’ll be fine in ten minutes, especially with Yixing helping. Don’t sweat it. Oh wait you couldn’t sweat it even if you tried, could you?” 

Sehun did metaphorically sweat it though. He curled up under his electric blanket and thought about the things he probably should and shouldn’t have said just then. Both to keep Jongin from getting too flustered and to convince him to reach down Sehun’s pants.


	7. Chapter 7

Apparently Yixing’s sugar was for making apple pie from scratch. Jongin sat at the counter and watched Sehun’s big hands dutifully slicing apples as Jongdae mixed pie crust dough. Baekhyun helpfully dumped all the apples out on the counter so he could build precarious apple pyramids. 

“If that falls over and you bruise all the apples, we’re going to make a special pie out of all the apples you destroy, and you will only be allowed to eat from that one,” Yixing warned. 

Baekhyun shrugged. “It’ll probably taste exactly the same, and I’ll have a whole pie to myself.” He set the third apple on his second to last row, and the began searched for the prettiest apple on the counter to top his pyramid. Jongin pulled an apple out of row three and smiled as one side of the pyramid collapsed. 

“Jongin, why?!” 

“I saw one I wanted.” 

“Ugh!” Baekhyun began angrily stacking apples again. 

“So Jongdae, how’s the girl?” Yixing interrupted before anymore drama could ensue. Jongdae looked up with a broad grin and accidentally dumped an extra cup and a half or so of sugar into the mixing pot. 

“She’s great!” 

“That’s wonderful,” Yixing said as he rolled up his sleeves and pushed Jongdae out of the way, “go sit over there and tell us more about her.” 

Jongdae plopped down on Jongin’s lap. “We always sit together now and talk through the whole class. I asked her to go with a movie with me and she said yes, so we’re going to go see the new Disney thing on Saturday. She didn’t even suggest bringing friends along or anything. It’s a date!” 

“Nice, Dae. That sounds like fun,” Yixing said as he furiously spooned whatever sugar was still dry out of the mixing bowl. Jongin had to lean way around Jongdae’s shoulder to watch. 

“I want to meet her before anything is made official,” Baekhyun said. His apple pyramid was almost remade. “She has to get my approval. I’d never risk dating a human, but if you’re going to, she has to get my all-clear first.” 

“Why wouldn’t you date a human?” Jongin asked. “You wouldn’t date me or Xing?” 

“You ruin my apple towers. Fuck no.” 

Sehun looked up from his cutting board. “I ruin your apple towers too, so that has nothing to do with being human.” 

Baekhyun’s tail twitched in agitation. “What? You haven’t ruined my—“ 

Sehun pulled his next apple out from a different side of Baekhyun’s pyramid, and it half collapsed again. Baekhyun heaved a long sigh and got back to work. “I guess if I knew somebody as long as I’ve known Jongin or Yixing, and I trusted them as much, I might consider it. But other than that there are too many things that could go wrong. I mean first you have the fetishization problem.” Jongdae hummed in agreement. “Sehun, I doubt you would have the same problem, but a lot of people specifically go after cats because of the ears and the tail. So you get the creeps who want a pet they can fuck.” 

Jongin wrinkled his nose. “That’s gross.” 

“Yeah, that’s probably the worst group. Then you get mildly less creepy people who specifically go after cats because they’re cat people and they like cats, but then they really focus on their boyfriend or girlfriend’s hybrid characteristics and forget that we’re really mostly human. Then there’s the people who want an exotic boyfriend to show off to their friends. Or they want to make themselves look better by taking on a charity case. Like ‘look at me being all open minded and progressive with my hybrid boyfriend. I’m so woke.’ Some people don’t even realize they’re doing it.” 

Jongdae nodded along. “I’ve seen all those happen, but I really don’t think that’s what my lady friend is doing. Sometimes I really don’t mind getting people’s attention with the tail. It’s a helpful conversation starter, and girls are more likely to give you a first chance. But then they get to know you and its not about the hybrid thing anymore.” 

That sounded like a pretty good deal actually. Jongin was kind of jealous. 

“I don’t think it’s like that with Baekhyun,” Sehun said. “Once people get past the ears and a tail, they realize he’s undateable.” 

Baekhyun snickered and threw an apple at him. “Anyway, then we get to the final category. People who don’t worry about leading you on because you’re a cat and they would never date you anyway. The ‘awe, I have an adorable cat friend and I flirt with him and he flirts with me, but obviously its all fun and games, right? I had no idea cats had feelings,’ people. I dated a guy like that once. Finally went in for the kiss after a couple weeks of dating and holding hands, and he was like but I thought you were just my cat friend.” 

Jongdae wiggled on Jongin’s lap. “Does that happen often?” 

“It’s happened to me twice, and it’s happened a couple times to some of my friends. I watched it happen to Minseok once. Just be careful, Dae.” 

The room was quiet for a minute, just Sehun’s knife against the cutting board and Yixing stirring. Jongin squeezed Jongdae around the middle and kissed the back of his neck. “Don’t worry, Dae. She sounds nice. I’d just talk to her about it, be open and honest, and if she’s a keeper she’ll understand. If things don’t work out, I’ll come sleep in your bed with you until you feel better.” 

“Thanks, Nini.” He pulled one of Jongin’s hands to his face and kissed the backs of his fingers. “You should come snuggle with me at night anyway, even if it goes well.” 

“But you kick and take up all the room,” Jongin muttered. 

Baekhyun placed his last apple on top of the pyramid, and Sehun took it right off so he could cut it up. “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about those all that. Sexy snake roleplay isn’t really a thing.” 

“Thank fuck.” Baekhyun shuddered. “What would you even do? Duct tape your arms and legs to your sides, stick a maraca in your butt, and wiggle around on the floor?” 

“Sounds like a good time,” Yixing said. “Throw in some hissing and biting and you’re all set.” 

“I bet Jongin would be into it,” Jongdae teased, and Jongin whined in protest. 

“No, that sounds weird.” 

“You haven’t stopped giggling since Baekhyun said it. I’m sitting on you. I can feel it.” 

“Well I mean it is pretty funny.” 

“You just want to stick a maraca in your butt, don’t you?” 

“What? No!” 

“You’re a dancer. I bet you could twerk up a nice beat.” 

Jongin tried to dump Jongdae off his lap, but the fucker got a good grip on the counter and hung on. 

Baekhyun, encouraged, continued. “Maybe the snake person puts on a straightjacket and hides in the apartment and hisses until the other person finds them, and then they jump out and bite them. If you want to be really frisky you hide in the bathroom cabinets and wait until the other person is about to take a shower.” 

Sehun snorted. 

“Then you swallow their cat or dog whole and sleep in the sun for three weeks. Sehun, does your jaw unhinge?” 

“No.” 

“Thank god, that would be gross. But if your jaw can’t unhinge, you can’t squeeze me to death, you don’t have a forked tongue, and the scary eyes are only a trick, you’re kind of a shit snake.” 

“Oh really?” Sehun looked up at Baekhyun with his chin tipped down threateningly, eyes glittering, and Jongin could see Baekhyun gathering his nerve again before responding. His tail whipped back and forth and his ears tipped back a little. 

“Really. You’re all hiss and no bite. I can’t believe I was ever scared of you.”

Sehun grabbed his next apple, once again, right off the top of Baekhyun’s pile, and stared Baekhyun down as he raised it to his lips and sank his teeth in. The room was oddly quiet for someone dramatically biting into an apple. When Sehun took it out of his mouth, there were deep intends from his top row of teeth. They were probably deeper than a human’s would be. Kind of anticlimactic. Sehun set the apple back down on the counter, and then some kind of odd, sickly yellow liquid seeped from the bite marks and dripped slowly down onto the gray counter. 

Jongin blinked at it in shock as Baekhyun frowned and reached forward to wipe it up off the counter with a finger. Jongin gasped in panic and his hand shot out to grab Baekhyun’s wrist before he could touch the little puddle forming at the base of the apple. 

“Baek, don’t that’s-“ 

“You’re venomous?” Yixing asked, as if that was the kind of casual question he asked people on a daily basis. 

“Yup.” 

“HOLY FUCK” Baekhyun yanked his hand out of Jongin’s grasp and scrambled away from the counter. Jongin blinked down at the apple and wondered what would happen if Baekhyun actually had touched it. He may or may not have looked up black mambas on the internet more than a few times since he’d learned what kind of hybrid Sehun was. He happened to know that black mamba venom was pretty nasty. Without antivenom, a black mamba bite would mean an almost one-hundred percent certainty of death. And there it was, dripping slowly onto the counter right in front of him. That had come from Sehun’s teeth. Jongin felt very hot all over. 

“You were going to let me touch that?!” 

Sehun shrugged at the screaming Baekhyun as Jongdae doubled over laughing on Jongin’s lap. “Nini saved you.” 

Jongin startled and looked up at Sehun. The snake had never called him Nini before. His chest clenched up. The gorgeous man standing in his kitchen, calling him cute nicknames, could kill people by biting them. Snake eyes were one thing. Sehun carrying an actual deadly weapon around with him at all times was entirely another. Suddenly Sehun seemed much, much more dangerous. 

“Have you ever bitten anyone?” Yixing asked, and Jongin gulped. 

“I accidentally bit a couple people at the lab when I was really little, but we had lots of antivenom around. No one ever got hurt. My venom isn’t an instant death kind of thing. There’s plenty of time to fix it.” 

“Can you kiss people?” 

“Yeah, definitely. I just can’t bite people. Luckily its not an automatic thing. If I want to invenomate someone it has to be intentional. But its not worth the risk, so I don’t ever bite anyone, and I never share food that I’ve bitten into.” He plucked the apple off the counter and rinsed it off in the sink, and then grabbed some paper towels to clean up the puddle on the counter. “And I have antivenom in my room.” 

“What kind of snake are you?” Baekhyun asked, and Sehun frowned. 

“I don’t tell people. Obviously a venomous one. Please don’t tell people about that, by the way. I’m okay with you guys knowing, but its really not something I want getting around.” 

Jongdae shifted around on Jongin’s lap, and then turned around to give him a look when Jongin gasped. For once, the cat had the good sense not to embarrass the crap out of him. He shifted carefully forward on Jongin’s lap to avoid his hard on, and kept his mouth shut. 

Yixing carefully lifted the apple out of the sink by the stem. 

“Guys, we have a literal poison apple here. Who do we give it too?” 

Jongdae giggled. “That kid, Jihoon. He lives at the end of the hallway? He’s about dwarf sized.” 

“There’s a girl on the second floor who remind me of the evil queen,” Baekhyun suggested. “She hates hybrids.” 

Jongin glanced over at Sehun again, and found the snake watching him carefully from his place by the cutting board. He looked curious, eyebrows raised a little, and Jongin blushed up to his ears immediately. Thank god for Jongdae, perched on his lap, hiding his obvious erection. He was working on making it go down, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Sehun biting people. Dangerous and deadly. Across the counter Sehun licked his lips and smiled, and Jongin felt a shiver run down his spine.


	8. Chapter 8

The last few week of March went from tentative spring right back into winter, and Sehun pulled his coat tighter and growled at the pathetic layer of wannabe snow on the grass. There was a deep chill under his skin that meant he needed to get inside fast. His Monday morning eight AM had been straight up torture, and his temperature levels were dipping towards dangerous levels. 

As soon as he walked into the apartment, his stiff legs almost tripped over Baekhyun’s dirty gym shoes, which had been left in the doorway again. They stank of some kind of weird mixture of standard shoe odor and sweaty cat, which was kind of like chicken but if chicken had sat in the sink for a week. He grunted in disgust and gave them a hard kick towards Baekhyun’s room. They banged against the wall maybe a little more loudly than Sehun had planned. It was nine fifteen. People were probably still asleep. Sehun felt a little bad. He scurried to his room and hoped nobody would come out and glare at him. 

He bust through his door, expecting the immediate relief of the heat, and then frowned. The air was lukewarm. Over by the window, the heater clicked awkwardly, without any of it’s usual humming and blowing. Sehun dropped his things on the growing pile at the end of his bed and went to examine. It was on, set on high, but only the most pathetic little stream of warm-ish air trickled out. He kicked it. The clicking stuttered to a stop, as did the warm air. Fuck. A little more poking and fiddling with numb fingers only confirmed what he’d been afraid of. The thing was fucking broken. 

It took a good ten minutes to email facilities with his numb fingers, another ten to set up the little backup heater, and by that point he was beginning to feel unusually drowsy. He could crawl under his electric blanket and hope for the best, but he should probably also tell someone what was going on just in case. Normally he would tell Dr. Frank, but there was no way he was handling a phone again. His first instinct had him wandering back into the common room and heading for Jongin’s door. Yixing had morning classes too, Baekhyun’s room smelled like shit, and Jongdae had a horrible temper when he woke up. 

Jongin’s door was cracked, so Sehun pushed it open. The boy was curled up under a mountain of blankets, his pretty face peaceful and glowing in the morning light. Sehun felt a sudden lurch of fondness. Heat radiated off Jongin in waves, and suddenly Sehun had a much better idea than the electric blanket. He came and knelt by Jongin’s bed. 

“Nini?” 

Jongin hummed softly and stirred to press his face into the pillow. 

“Jongin, I’m sorry to wake you up, but this is important.” 

The boy cracked one eyes open. 

“Se…hun?” 

“My heater broke.” He could see Jongin’s sleepy brain trying to process. 

“Oh? That’s…bad…” His eyes drifted shut again, and Sehun reached forward to pet his cheek. Jongin blinked awake again. 

“Can I crawl in with you for a bit?” 

“Mm-hmm.” 

Sehun stood and kicked out of his shoes, then pulled off his sweater. He contemplated leaving his pants on, but they were very uncomfortable to sleep in, and it would be harder to get his legs warmed up. He could at least take off his belt. Stiff fingers weren’t very good at handling belts. Jongin reached one long golden arm out from under the blankets and helped tug open Sehun’s belt and fly. Sleepy fingers weren’t very good at handling belts and pants either, but together they managed. Jongin fell asleep half way through. His hand went limp against Sehun’s thigh as Sehun finally finished pulling down the zipper. 

When the pants were finally off, Sehun lifted the blankets and slid inside. He moaned with relief. Jongin was hot like a furnace under the covers, also wearing nothing but boxers and a t-shirt. Sehun ducked under the blankets completely and wrapped himself around Jongin’s body, face pressed against his chest and thighs tangled together. Above him Jongin giggled. The sound rumbled against Sehun’s lips. Both Jongin’s arms wrapped tight around Sehun’s head and shoulders. 

Sehun could feel the warmth seep into his body. Jongin’s arms went limp around his head as he drifted off back to sleep. Technically Sehun had another class at eleven-fifteen, but there was no way he was going. Not if it meant having to crawl out of Jongin’s warm bed. 

The heat made him even drowsier. He nuzzled into Jongin’s chest and gave him one last squeeze, and then closed his eyes and let himself nod off. 

 

Jongin opened his eyes to a surreal and beautiful world in which Sehun’s face was inches away from his own. Sun filtered through the cool morning air and lit Sehun’s cheek, shining though his dark hair and bringing out the most delicate pinks in his lips. Jongin felt very, very comfortable. The warm, heavy blankets cocooned them both in softness. Sehun’s body wrapped around him like an octopus, keeping him close and safe. His skin was just slightly cooler than Jongin’s, which made him perfect to snuggle with. It was a perfect moment. Soft and warm. Jongin snuggled in close, smiling, and let his lips slide pleasantly against Sehun’s. 

It took a few moments for Sehun’s lips to respond, and by that point Jongin was almost asleep again. But he felt the clumsy, barely awake smear of Sehun’s lips moving, and he blinked his eyes open again so he could clumsily smudge them back, brain swimming half between dreams and real life. Sehun’s bottom lip was so fucking soft. He squished it gently between his own and poked it with his tongue. 

Something slid slickly against his tongue. It felt kind of gross. He giggled and pulled his own tongue back into his mouth, and the corner of Sehun’s lips curled up beneath his. He placed gentle pecks at the edge of his smile. 

A big hand slid all the way down Jongin’s back and over his ass, settling on the back of his thigh, and Jongin’s eyes blinked open in surprise. Sehun’s reptilian eyes stared back into his at point range, and Jongin felt everything get hotter as sleep faded from his brain. Sehun’s kissed him again and his eyes dropped closed. 

Their next kiss was a real one, both mostly awake. Jongin located his arms. One was under Sehun’s neck, and the other was resting over Sehun’s ribs. Perfect for pulling Sehun against him as their lips slid lazily together. He should probably be freaking out, considering he’d wanted to do this all semester, but he was too happy and drowsy to stress. Too warm and comfortable. One of those bone deep comfortable feelings where he never wanted to get out of bed. 

Sehun rolled half on top of Jongin and pressed him down into the pillows, still kissing lazily. He was so, so warm under the blankets. Sehun needed it warm. Jongin made sure the blankets were tucked in tight around Sehun’s shoulders before wrapping his arms back around his neck, and in return Sehun gave Jongin’s bottom lip and especially thoughtful suck. Jongin smiled and nipped his cute upper lip a couple times and then returned to the bottom one for more kisses. 

It stayed sweet and innocent, no tongues, just lips. Jongin relaxed back into his fluffy pillows and let Sehun lead the way. Eventually they were both completely awake. Jongin started feeling hot and maybe a little nervous. Sehun’s snakey senses must have detected his nerves somehow. He pulled back just a couple inches, enough to look into Jongin’s eyes, and smiled. 

“Good morning.” 

“Morning.” 

“Thank you for keeping me warm.” 

“Thanks… for the kisses.” 

Sehun smiled and ducked down for another one. 

“I should thank you. You’re the one who started it.” 

“I was? Oh. Yeah, I guess I was. I was kind of asleep.” He felt himself blush and draw in a little. Sehun snuggled closer with his face pushed into Jongin’s neck. 

“I was surprised, but I liked it. So much better than an alarm clock.” 

Jongin giggled and squeezed Sehun closer and nuzzled into his hair. “I’m just glad you kissed back. I would have felt really awkward if I woke up and figured out I’d kissed you and you didn’t want it.” 

“Pretty Nini, of course I want it.” He gave Jongin’s neck a soft kiss, and then went lax on top of Jongin’s body. Jongin realized that he could feel Sehun’s bare legs against his. 

“You’re not wearing pants,” he giggled. 

“You aren’t either.” 

“I know, but I don’t wear pants all the time. You always wear pants.” 

“I hate wearing pants.” 

“Really?” 

Sehun nodded. His breath tickled Jongin’s neck. “I actually really hate having to wear so many heavy clothes. Its suffocating. I’d rather wear shorts and a t-shirt. Or nothing.” 

“Wow, that sucks.” 

“Yeah.” 

Jongin didn’t want to ever get up. It didn’t really seem like Sehun wanted to either. They lay and cuddled for another long few minutes until Jongin’s phone on the desk dinged. He reached one unfortunate arm out into the cooler air and retrieved it. 

“It’s Yixing. He saw your door was open and the air was cold, and he’s worried.” He reluctantly brought the other arm out from under the blankets and shot him a quick text that Sehun was fine and in his room. 

“Fuck, I left my door open? I set up my backup heater, but if I left the door open then so much for that.” 

“I told him you’re fine.” 

“Cool.”

The door of Jongin’s room burst open. 

“YES!” Jongdae shrieked.

“Noooo,” Jongin groaned, and Sehun giggled and gave his sides a soothing squeeze. 

“You jumped so hard.”

“BAEKHYUN COME LOOK AT THESE GUYS!” 

There were some frantic footsteps, and then Baekhyun took a deep breath, held it, and yelled “AWWWW” as loud as he could. The neighbors really must hate them. 

Two snickering cats joined them on the bed, pinning the blankets down on either side of them and making it impossible to move. Baekhyun pulled out his phone to take pictures. 

“This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” 

“Don’t make a big deal out of it,” Jongin whined. “Sehun needed help.” 

“Helping Sehun is great and all,” Jongdae said, “but you could cuddle him in a lot of ways that were less… intimate.”

Sehun stuck out his tongue and licked Jongin’s neck, just to prove Jongdae’s point, and Jongin blushed and wished he was the one with his face hidden. 

“Do you guys even have pants on?” 

“…” 

“Knew it.” Baekhyun giggled. “Is rubbing legs with Jongin any fun though? His legs are so hairy, when I first moved in with him, I thought he was a bear hybrid.” 

“They’re not that hairy,” Jongin whined. 

“I mean compared to Baekhyun’s they are,” Jongdae said. “Don’t be offended, he’s just jealous. Baekhyun’s razor in the bathroom hasn’t been touched since school started last semester. I don’t even know why he owns one. Just wishful thinking I guess.” 

Sehun snickered. “Still haven’t hit puberty, Byun? Can’t grow body hair? Or maybe you’re a hybrid of one of those weird hairless Egyptian cats.” 

“You’re one to talk, you dumb snake. I’ve never seen any stubble on you either.” 

Jongin could confirm that Sehun’s face was extremely smooth. 

“I’m a reptile hybrid. It’s different.” 

“Bullshit. You have hair on your head, don’t you?” 

Yixing finally entered the room to calm everyone down. “There are five slices of pie warming up in the oven right now. If you guys let poor JongHun go, we can all eat them together. If not, I’ll just let everyone’s but mine burn.” 

The cats scrambled off the bed and ran towards the kitchen. Jongdae tripped over Baekhyun’s gym shoes on the way and fell with a loud shriek. Yixing didn’t flinch. “Facilities is shitty. They never come fix things fast enough, so we should talk about how to keep Sehun warm until they finally drag their asses over here.” He tossed a pair of Sehun’s sweatpants onto the bed and then left to manage the cats. 

“I don’t have a place to warm up again when I get cold,” Sehun said as he flopped around on top of Jongin to try to get his pants on. Jongin slipped a protective hand over his junk to guard against flailing knees, “so could we keep cuddling? I know the cats will tease, but…” 

“Its fine. I don’t mind. The cats will tease me anyway. They always find something.” 

He pulled the comforter off the bed and followed Sehun out into the apartment, and wrapped himself around Sehun’s back when they got to the counter. Jongdae cooed. 

“I have class in thirty minutes, so let’s get down to business.” Yixing set the tray of apple pie slices down on the counter. “Sehun please grab us some forks.” 

Sehun tried to reach for the silverware drawer, but his arms above his elbows were pinned to his sides by Jongin and blankets. He shuffled closer. Jongin yelped and almost fell over. 

“Never mind. Baek, please get us some forks.” 

The cat whined dramatically and dragged his feet over to the other side of the counter. 

“So Sehun needs a warm spot. I think someone should trade rooms with him until the heater is fixed. I’m sure if we tell facilities that it’s urgent, and if we get Dr. Frank’s help, it’ll get fixed by tomorrow, so it really shouldn’t be too inconvenient for someone to just go sleep in a different room for a night.” 

“He can use mine,” said Baekhyun. Jongin pouted behind Sehun’s back. 

“I don’t want yours, Byun. I’ve been in there. It smells like shit.” 

“Sorry, Sehun,” Jongdae said around a mouthful of too hot pie, “but even though we’re friends now, your smell still makes me kind of nervous.” 

Jongin took a deep breath and muttered “you can have mine.” He really wanted Sehun to stay in his room, but he didn’t want to look too eager. It wasn’t like he was asking Sehun to keep sleeping with him. 

Nobody heard him, not even Sehun who was attached to his front. Yixing actually finished swallowing his food before talking. “My heater works really well. I have a hard time keeping it warm without it being, like, eighty degrees. Not to mention we both have the cleanest rooms, so it kind of makes sense for us to switch.” 

“That would probably make the most sense,” Jongdae agreed. 

Baekhyun had other ideas. “No it wouldn’t. I don’t want to watch Nini sulk around the apartment all day. Sehun and Jongin should switch rooms.” 

Jongin could feel himself blushing. Yixing giggled. 

“Can I turn around, Jongin?” 

He let Sehun loose so Sehun could shuffle around to face him, and then found himself face to face with Sehun again, way too close to his intense, reptilian eyes, especially since they weren’t about to start kissing again. “Can I switch rooms with you?” 

“I dunno, can you?” He muttered, and Baekhyun laughed and dribbled pie down his chin. 

“May I?” 

“I-if you want to that’s, um, fine with me. Um. Yeah, that’s, um. I’m good. With that. You may. I g-guess it. Doesn’treallymatter?” Oh god that was way too much rambling. So much for being discreet. His face burned with embarrassment. 

Sehun gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and as both cats shrieked and Baekhyun tipped backwards off his stool, it suddenly hit Jongin that this might mean Sehun liked him back. The heat in his face transformed into something just as hot, but a lot more comfortable. 

Sehun turned back around and Jongin cuddled up to his back again to hide his face. “Okay, that’s settled then. I’ll switch with Jongin. Can someone call Dr. Frank? I can’t move my arms.” 

Yixing had Dr. Frank on speed dial because of course he did. He held the phone to Sehun’s ear and fed him pie at the same time, which Dr. Frank found funny and confusing. 

“And why can’t you move your arms again?” 

“ah’m a fnage.” Yixing jammed another forkful of pie into his mouth and Jongin giggled and held Sehun’s arms tighter to his sides. 

“What?” 

“Ah saib ah’m a hnage.” 

“Because you’re a snake?” 

“eah.” 

“Okay, Sehun. I hope you somehow find some human arms before Monday, because we have a very important lab.” 

“uhgay.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“I saib. Oh. Gay.” 

Jongin cackled into Sehun’s shoulder. Baekhyun had to put a hand over his mouth to keep more pie from falling out as he laughed. Jongdae wasn’t paying attention at all. He was smiling cutely at his phone and texting somebody. 

“There’s nothing particularly gay about his lab, Sehun, but if you want to come wearing a rainbow lab coat I won’t complain.” 

“Uuuugh.” Sehun angrily swallowed the pie in his mouth and coughed a little. “I said okay, not gay. Xing no! Don’t want! Blarghdsflsjf!” 

He thrashed, and Jongin tipped over backwards onto the ground, pulling Sehun with him. They wiggled around in a puddle on the floor as Yixing signed off with Dr. Frank. Just as they were about to get untangled, something big and heavy landed on top of the pile. 

“Hugh! Baek, why?” 

The cat wiggled on top of them. “Come on, Jongdae, jump in!” 

“Can’t, texting my mom.” 

“You are not!” He gave a particularly aggressive wiggle. Jongin shrieked as Sehun’s butt landed firmly on his bladder. “You’re texting your lady friend! I just saw your phone!” 

“Okay, maybe I am.” Jongdae grinned happily at his phone. Jongin let Sehun’s arms go, and the snake wrapped himself around Baekhyun with both arms and legs and rolled. “But I’m also texting my mom. She and dad are coming to visit.” 

“Oh shit they always bring food.” 

It was Jongin’s turn to jump on the top of the pile, curling around Sehun’s back with the blanket. 

“Oh my god, so warm. Stay like that, Jongin.” 

“Help! I’m being squashed by giants!” 

Yixing wandered over to turn the thermostat up. “When are they coming, Jongdae?” 

“Tomorrow night.” 

The room went silent. Jongin stuck his head up to look around the apartment, at the scattered clothes, Baekhyun’s gym shoes, the sink full of dishes, the apple cores rotting on the windowsill, the menagerie of notebooks and textbooks spread out across every surface, the empty liquor bottles, the crumpled chip bags and canteen dishes on the floor. 

“Shit.” 

“Tomorrow night when?” 

“Um.” Jongdae looked around and seemed to realize the problem. “Right after class?”


	9. Chapter 9

Jongin hated cleaning. It didn’t help that the apartment was way too hot for it, and too cold for Sehun, who washed the dishes with borderline scalding water that didn’t seem to bother him at all. The steam made the whole place a little extra humid. Jongin aggressively threw Baekhyun’s gym shoes onto the cat’s bed and slammed the door. Jongdae and Yixing took a break for class, Sehun took a break for a long, hot shower, Baekhyun disappeared into his jungle of a room for an hour and a half to get it clean and then also took a long shower, but Jongin was stuck pulling old burger wrappers out from under the couch all on his own for the better part of the afternoon. By the time everyone was back and ready for dinner, Jongin had gradually stripped down to his boxers as he vacuumed. 

“Is this place clean yet?” Sehun asked from his place on the couch, curled up in his electric blanket. Jongin sprawled out on the freshly clean floor and groaned. 

“No. We still have the insides of the oven and the microwave, which are gross, and the bathrooms. And my room.” He glared at the door. It was now about ninety degrees in there, and there was no way in hell Jongin was cleaning it when it was that hot. 

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the coolness of the floor on his back instead. Nap time. 

“Jongin did you go to class today?” 

Dammit Baekhyun. Couldn’t a hot, tired boy catch some shut eye on the living room floor without being interrupted? 

“Is he asleep already? What the fuck?” 

Almost, no thanks to a certain noisy cat. 

Something suddenly landed on Jongin’s chest, startlingly cold. He gasped and twisted as it spread and dripped down his stomach and sides, pooled at his collarbones, such a relief after nothing but burning up for hours. More cold water splashed across his stomach and Jongin moaned. 

When his eyes finally flickered open, Baekhyun was staring down at him with an empty cup of water. The room was weirdly quiet. 

“You could not have made that more sexual if you tried.” 

Oh fuck, there had been a lot of moaning in there, hadn’t there. And some writhing. Jongin felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment which was just a lot of extra heat he didn’t need. Over on the couch, Sehun watched him closely over the top of his blanket. Oh god.

He twisted onto his side and curled up. “Oops.” Why the fuck had he taken all his clothes off again? What a bad idea. And Sehun was giving him that look, which would be awesome if it weren’t for the three other boys in the room all groaning about how gross they were. Jongin was so embarrassed. “I-I’m just gunna… go shower…” 

He clambered to his feet with his arms over his chest. Baekhyun smacked him hard on the ass. Jongin yelped and hurried away towards the bathroom. 

 

Jongin’s room was warm and nice, but not quite warm enough, even with the heater. It had seemed a lot warmer that morning, but he’d had Jongin’s warmth then. Now he was here alone, in the last dirty room in the apartment, feeling just barely warm enough and kind of lonely. There was no way the room was going to be warm enough without his other heater. With a heavy sigh he turned off his electric blanket and got out of bed. 

It was nice to be able to walk across the apartment without tripping over stuff. Jongin had done a really nice job. The floor was actually visible, not covered by a layer of boy debris. It practically sparkled in the light coming from underneath his room’s door. Jongin was still up. 

When pushed the door open, Jongin was sitting on his bed with his face in Sehun’s pillow, clearly mid sniff. 

“Whatcha doin?” 

Jongin stared blankly at him with really wide eyes, cheeks getting pinker by the second. 

“U-um.” 

“Having a good sniff there?” 

Jongin looked like he was about to die. 

Sehun came in and closed the door behind him. The room was barely warm enough for even Jongin with nothing but the mini heater, and Sehun realized he couldn’t take it back to Jongin’s room with him. Poor Jongin would freeze without it. Welp, only one thing to do. He crawled up on the bed and removed the pillow from Jongin’s grasp. 

“Do you like how I smell?” 

The other boy shifted uncomfortably with downcast eyes, a furious blush, and a full on pout. God he was so cute. 

“I-I guess. I was trying to figure out why the cats don’t like it…” 

Sehun licked his lips. Jongin smelled really nice. “Did Baekhyun actually think you were a bear hybrid?” 

“He asked if I had a bear hybrid in my family. Like if one of my grandparents was.” 

“You kind of smell like a bear hybrid. It’s a good thing. It’s a foresty smell, kind of deep and warm and a little spicy somehow. I don’t know how to explain it.” 

Jongin smiled a little and his blush receded. “You smell good too. Do you even get BO?” 

“Well, I don’t sweat. After not bathing for a while I do start smelling, but it’s a snake smell. I don’t think it would smell bad to you. Baekhyun and Jongdae would freak out though.” He was starting to feel cold, so he put the pillow back where it was supposed to be and crawled under the blankets. “Come cuddle? Your room doesn’t get as hot as mine.” 

Jongin joined him and settled down with his back to Sehun’s front. Spooning was nice. He wasn’t usually the big spoon. Usually when he got spooned, it was one of his scientist parents trying to warm him up, which wasn’t very sexy. It was a comforting association though. Sehun had a lot of parents. 

“I’m sorry I’m so weird,” Jongin muttered. 

“I’m a snake hybrid and you think you’re the one who’s weird? I don’t think you’re weird, Jongin. I think you’re adorable. And hot.” He felt Jongin shiver. 

“Thanks.” 

Speaking of hot, Jongin’s body was wonderfully warm. Sehun felt like he could melt right through the bed he was so comfortable. He snuggled closer. 

“Do you think Jongdae and the girl are going to work out? I’m worried.” 

“Huh?” Sehun shook himself out of his happy warm place and back to the real world. “I’ve never met her, but I hope she’s nice. Does Jongdae have good taste?” 

“Probably. Who knows if she does though. It’s just… I’ve been friends with him for a long time now, and he’s usually pretty lonely guy. If it doesn’t work out for him this time, I’m going to be really sad.” 

Sehun could relate. He’d been lonely his whole life. 

“If things don’t work out, he has you guys. That’s something really special, you know.” He slid his hand down Jongin’s firm chest and felt him push into it with a shaky breath. 

“I hope so.”

“I mean it, Jongin. You’re all really really good people. I thought I could never belong anywhere because of my biology, but now that I’ve spent a couple months with you guys, I’m beginning to feel like maybe it isn’t such a big deal. I can have friends and stuff. Even cats. I’ve never had a cat not hate me.” 

Sehun could feel Jongin giggle with his hand pressed flat against Jongin’s stomach. He gave it a slow rub. 

“I told you. Remember? That one time after you almost died I told you you didn’t have to be lonely.” 

“I remember.” He squeezed Jongin tighter and gave the back of his neck and slow kiss. Jongin gasped. “I’m not lonely anymore. Are you lonely?” 

Jongin turned over to face him. “Yes,” he breathed, needy and wanton, and Sehun crushed their mouths together. This morning’s kisses had been gentle. This kiss was passionate, with tongues sliding between their lips and hands wandering. Jongin moaned sweetly. He was so perfect. Sehun had never wanted anybody so much. He squeezed Jongin close and kissed along his jaw and down his neck, licking and sucking, trying to make Jongin forget what lonely even felt like. Jongin mewled. Such a pretty sound. Hands tangled in his hair and slid up his shirt. Sehun didn’t even think about it until Jongin gasped as his hand slid up his spine and Sehun stiffened.

“Other direction.” Now he was nervous.

“S-sorry.” 

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Sehun kissed Jongin’s apology away and Jongin tentatively moved his hand to the top of Sehun’s spine and stroked down this time. It felt so different from Jongin’s touches on the rest of his body. A little more dulled, but somehow just a little more sensitive too. The feeling was deeper. 

“It’s so soft.” 

“Have you ever held a snake before?” 

“Yeah, but it was a long time ago. I forgot.” He pet down Sehun’s scales again, from the top of his spin to where they spread out between his shoulder blades, and then tapered all the way down to his tailbone. “That’s awesome.” 

“Not gross?” 

“No, I like it. Do you have them anywhere else?” 

“A little on my shoulders and the backs of my arms. There’s one really weird patch on my hip and on the inside of my thigh. They were all kind of… engineering mistakes where the snake genes just did what they want. Like birthmarks.” 

“Wow.” Jongin slid a hand up to his shoulder and gripped. Most of his bicep was covered in snake skin. “That’s so hot.” 

Sehun could have cried he was so relieved. He smiled and dove in to keep making out. 

Jongin definitely liked it. His hands never left Sehun’s back and arms, but his breath shook a little, and he let Sehun make most of the moves. Sehun wished Jongin was comfortable enough to do what he wanted without feeling shy. He tried kissing harder. Jongin responded a little with a couple sweet mewls, and then tangled their legs together, slid his tongue along Sehun’s and moaned. 

Fuck he was so hot. Sehun wanted to tear his clothes off and lick over every inch of his body. He started with Jongin’s neck, licking and sucking down his jugular while Jongin gasped and gripped almost painfully at his shoulders. Sehun fastened his lips at the base of Jongin’s neck and sucked, and his teeth slid lightly over Jongin’s skin. 

Jongin yelped and flinched away. Sehun let go and jerked back. His fangs had been way too close to Jongin’s neck. “I’m sorry.” His heart beat wildly as Jongin panted against his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” 

“N-no I’m sorry. I’m sorry I jumped. You’re fine, I’m sorry.” 

“I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry.” He carefully wrapped his arms back around Jongin, who still hadn’t emerged from Sehun’s chest.

“It’s really okay. You’re fine. I’m so sorry I freaked out. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.” He was still gripping Sehun hard enough to hurt. Sehun felt terrible. They’d been having so much fun, he’d forgotten to watch out for the fangs. He could have hurt Jongin.

“It’s my fault, I should have been more careful.” 

“No, you’re fine. I d-don’t want you to think I don’t like… your snake things. I do. I shouldn’t have jumped.”

“That specific snake thing could kill you if I’m not careful. You were fine. I didn’t take it personally.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“No, I’m sorry.” 

“You’re fine.” 

“You too, it’s okay.” 

Sehun gave him a squeeze. Things had been going so well. He fucked it up. Kissing was over. 

They cuddled for a while, catching their breath and feeling guilty, until Jongin finally uncurled and tucked his head under Sehun’s chin. “We’re dumb.” 

“Yeah, we are.” 

There was another long silence, then Jongin tentatively gave Sehun’s back a gentle stroke. Sehun kissed his hair. 

“Do you ever shed?” 

“Yup. It gets really itchy and weird feeling and then I have to peel it off like a scab.” 

“Do you keep them” 

“I don’t, but one of my many dads does. I guess the baby ones are cute. I kind of want to just throw them away though.” 

Jongin giggled.

Kissing was nice, but this was nice too. Just lying and snuggling. The guilt ebbed away. Jongin had been really sweet about it. 

“I’m nervous about Jongdae’s parents coming,” he admitted when Jongin seemed fully relaxed again.

“Really? Why?” 

“Adult cats are scarier than cats my age. Especially when they think I’m going to hurt their kittens.” 

“Oh.” 

“I’m probably going to say hi and then disappear for the rest of their visit.” 

“That’s fair.” 

He reached up and started playing with Jongin’s soft, soft hair. Jongin hummed and kissed his chest. 

“So how are classes?” 

“Oh, well, you know.” Jongin chatted for a while about his good classes, and his stressful classes, and then they talked about their favorite foods and what movies they wanted to watch, until it turned from late to very late and the overhead light started to hurt Sehun’s eyes. 

“We should sleep.” 

“Yeah… you’re going to stay here?” 

“If that’s alright.” 

“It’s more than alright. I’ll go turn the light off.” Jongin stumbled over to the switch, and then managed to trip over the rug in the dark and knock a pile of books over. Sehun was still giggling long after Jongin got settled back into little spoon position with an embarrassed grumble. He drifted off to sleep still smiling. 

Early in the morning Sehun stirred to see a flustered maintenance man coming in to look at the radiator. He fiddled and banged at it for a bit, and Jongin murmured in his sleep and turned over to snuggle closer. They should probably leave to let maintenance man work, but Sehun rarely felt so warm, so he stubbornly closed his eyes and ignored the banging. If the man couldn’t deal with a couple guys snuggling in a dorm bed, then that was his problem. 

The heater roared back to life on high, and maintenance man straightened up and huffed. Sehun gave him a quick, drowsy wave and grunted “thanks,” and the man nodded and left as quickly as he’d come. Jongin muttered something and slid his hand drowsily over Sehun’s lower back before falling asleep again.


	10. Chapter 10

“DaeDae!!” A pretty little woman with large black ears pounced through the door and nearly knocked Jongdae to the ground. 

“Mom!” 

“Oooh, I miss you so much when you’re away.” 

They giggled and rolled around and were adorable. A smiley, friendly looking man with a very puffy tail came through the door after carrying a cooler. “Oh look, the place is clean this time. You didn’t shove it all in Baekhyun’s room, did you?”

“Nope, you can go look in Baekhyun’s room too. We even cleaned that.” 

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Jongin had to back up quickly as she stomped over to Baekhyun’s room and flung the door open. 

“Oh wow, it is clean.” 

“Oh hey Mrs. Kim,” came Baekhyun’s voice from inside.

“Hey yourself. Put some pants on.” 

Jongdae shrieked. “Are you going pantsless in front of my mother?” 

Baekhyun peaked out of his room with a greasy smirk and wiggly eyebrows. Jongin giggled. 

“Look at you!” She rounded on Jongin with a wide smile. “You get more handsome every time I see you.” 

He turned the charm on. “Thanks Mrs. Kim. You too.” 

“Everybody stop hitting on my mom!” 

“Can I hit on your dad instead?” asked Baekhyun. Mr. Kim hid behind the kitchen counter. 

“Are you taking good care of my kitten?” 

“Mom!” 

“I’m trying but I’m just so busy with Baekhyun.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Understandable. But I thought you had Yixing for that.” 

“Baekhyun is a two-person job, and we don’t have Minseok this semester. Jongdae does pretty well on his own, right Dae? Workin on a girlfriend?” 

Mrs. Kim abandoned Jongin to stomp back to her son, tail whipping back and forth. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.” 

“Why would you tell her?” Jongdae whined and rolled slowly away from his mother. 

“Let’s hear it, kiddo. Is she nice? How long have you been talking? Is she a hybrid? Is she a boy?” 

“She’s a human girl and she’s really nice and we’re going out to dinner this weekend.” 

“Oh yeah? What does she smell like, kiddo?” 

“Mmm… Tuna salad.” 

“Ooh, sounds nice.” 

Cats were so fucking weird. Jongin took out his phone and saw a message from Sehun saying he’d be home in a few minutes. Jongin frowned. He was nervous. 

“So where is Yixing?” 

“Class. He’s always busy. He’ll be back soon.” 

Mr. Kim started unloading food from the cooler. A large pan of lasagna, a giant tub of tuna casserole, a tub of fried chicken, chili, macaroni and cheese, basically anything a college boy could ever want. Jongin, Baekhyun, and Jongdae all gathered around to help find places in the fridge for everything. They had some trouble fitting the pies. 

“Mamma Kim!” 

“Xing!” She jumped on him Koala style and Yixing somehow managed to keep standing. “Good to see you! Are you taking care of my son?”

“I do when he lets me.” 

Sehun appeared shyly in the open door and slipped inside. Both Kim parents froze and whipped around towards him, noses working. 

“Who’s this?” 

“Um, this is Sehun,” Jongdae said as he scurried between them. “He’s our fifth roommate. I know he smells mean but it’s not his fault. He’s a snake hybrid and he’s really nice.” 

The Kims didn’t move. Jongin wondered if he should do something. 

“A what?” 

“Snake? Hybrid?” 

“Hi, I’m Sehun. Nice to meet you guys…” 

The Kims stared at him. Dammit, they were usually so nice. Jongin came and joined him by the door. 

“I didn’t know that was a thing,” Jongdae’s dad muttered, while Mrs. Kim puffed up and crossed her arms. 

“You didn’t tell me this.” Uh oh. Full on Mom Voice. 

“Because I knew you’d get like this. Stop, he’s my friend. He’d never hurt me.” 

“What kind of snake?” 

Jongdae huffed. “It doesn’t matter. You’re being unreasonable.” 

Her eyes and mom voice snapped to him instead. “You don’t get to decide when I’m being unreasonable. I’m your mother. Am I being unreasonable, honey?” 

“No.” 

Jongin could see Sehun’s face going carefully blank. 

“What kind of snake are you?” 

Sehun frowned and looked down at the ground. “That’s personal.” 

“Something venomous? Something that eats cats?” 

“N-no.” 

“No you’re not venomous, or no you wouldn’t eat cats?” 

“I wouldn’t…” 

“Depends what you mean by eat,” Baekhyun said with an eyebrow wiggle, and Mrs. Kim looked a little thrown off. 

“Don’t you touch my son.” 

“I’m straight mom.” 

“That’s not what I meant. But that too! Don’t touch or flirt with my son.” 

“I’m really sorry, Sehun,” Jongdae said, and Sehun smiled a little. 

“It’s okay. I’m used to it.” He touched Jongin’s wrist and pulled him towards his room. “I’m sorry for… um. Making you nervous. Nice to meet you.” He pushed into his room and shut the door behind him. It was hot as Satan’s asshole again. 

“That was bad.” 

Sehun heaved a sigh. “Yup, that was awkward.” He flopped down on his bed. “It’s fine though, I get it. Young cats always dislike me, but they steer clear. Adult cats with kittens though? Their first instinct is to get rid of me. I’m a threat to their baby. She’ll probably come around. Sorry for dragging you into the hot room, by the way. I needed to warm up.” 

Jongin could hear an argument raging out in the house, something about Jongdae’s mom making the school move Sehun out, and Jongdae arguing that he was just as safe around Sehun as mouse hybrids were safe around him. Yixing’s voice of reason was in there too, and no doubt Baekhyun’s jumping in with his sharp wit, to put a stamp on every good point and to carve out the flaws in every counter argument. The Kims would come around.

“You’re really used to this?” 

“Yeah. Humans can’t smell the snake on me, but when they find out a lot of them react even worse. Do you know how many on my classmates’ moms visibly cringed away from me all my life? Its shocking how many people are scared of snakes. Or are disgusted by them. They’re just animals. I don’t get it.” 

Jongin crawled into bed and sat by Sehun’s side. “That’s really sad.” 

“The reaction I get from hybrids actually bothers me less, because I know it’s grounded in something real. Survival instincts and shit. They can’t help that my smell bothers them. But I can’t understand when humans are like that. I’m a person. I look like a person. I have skin and hair and four limbs and feelings like a person. How do people miss that?”

“I like reptiles.” 

Sehun laughed. “You better, because I study them, and you’re going to be seeing them a lot.” 

“Can’t wait.” He reached out and played with Sehun’s hair. Sehun smiled. 

“Thanks for not letting me die that one time. I’m glad I have friends.” 

There was some more yelling from the living room, and the smile slid off Sehun’s face. Jongin didn’t want that. He leaned down and kissed him hard, with tongue and teeth and everything. Sehun’s smile grew again under his lips. Jongin felt bold. He straddled Sehun’s waist and led the kiss, happy to feel Sehun’s hands sliding down his sides. 

“Do you like my body?” 

“Yes. I want to see more of it.” 

Jongin sat up and stripped off his shirt, flexing. Sehun moaned. 

“Shh, the Kims don’t need to hear that.” 

“I need you to hear that,” he murmured back, and pulled Jongin down to moan right in his ear as he felt up Jongin’s abs. Jongin’s bold streak ran out. He found himself blushing like crazy again. One of these days his cheeks were going to permanently stain themselves pink. “What do you want to do, Jongin?” 

So many things. Mainly turn the heater off. Jongin figured that wasn’t an option. “I want to… I want to see the snake skin on the inside of your thigh.” 

Sehun laughed and squeezed his ribs. Jongin squealed as quietly as he could. “What was that for?” 

“That was smooth, I was impressed. Let me take my pants off.” He undid his fly and pushed them down his hips. Jongin sat up so he could back up and help Sehun take them the rest of the way off. His heart picked up speed when he realized he was peeling both pants, fleece leggings, and boxers off of Sehun’s smooth, hairless legs. 

“Wow, you really don’t have any body hair.” 

“Nope. I’m lucky I have hair at all. Or skin. Would you still think I was hot if I was scales all over?” 

“I don’t know, that might look pretty weird on your face…” He pulled Sehun’s pants off his feet, and Sehun lay back and spread his legs wide. 

His dick was big, already swelling. Baekhyun hadn’t been lying. Jongin wished he’d been brave enough to reach down Sehun’s pants when Sehun had asked, because he might have actually been prepared. It was beautiful. Jongin wanted to snuggle up with it and give it kisses. 

There was a stripe of black scales, a couple inches wide where it was thickest, following the V line of his right hip from the outside of his abs to the inside of his thigh. Sehun lifted his left leg to reveal another similar stripe curling down the inside of his thigh, right up close where it met his crotch, and disappearing underneath him where it must taper away somewhere over the curve of his ass. 

Raised voices in the living room jerked Jongin back to the present. Sehun blinked up at him with a smirk. “Like what you see?” 

He nodded, a little embarrassed, and shimmied down to lay on his stomach between Sehun’s legs. Sehun had to scoot back and lean on the headboard so he would fit. “Are you okay with doing this while Chen’s family is here?” 

“They never have to know.” 

Jongin nodded. His heart was beating hard. When he looked down he found his face just a foot or so away from Sehun’s crotch, and he couldn’t decide what to put his mouth on first. Better start easy. He placed his lips on inside of Sehun’s thigh, right where the scales began, and mouthed at them carefully. They didn’t meld perfectly into Sehun’s skin. The stripe seemed almost patched on, like a wisp of smoke that had latched onto Sehun’s leg and melted into him. The boarder was rough and uneven. Sehun’s genes were far from a perfected model, but Jongin loved it. He licked his way up the edge of the stripe carefully, since he was going the opposite direction that the scales lay, and then back down again. 

Above him Sehun sighed shakily, and when Jongin glanced up he was surprised to find Sehun a good bit harder. His size was even more intimidating now. 

“Does this feel good?” 

“Yeah. Touches on the snake skin feel different. Good different.” He spread his thighs a little wider as Jongin tucked his face right into the crease of Sehun’s thigh and lapped at the scales, his fingers petting the stripe on his hip, and Sehun moaned softly. 

There was only so much he could do at this point with the scales. He didn’t know how easy it was to hurt them. Not to mention, there were other places his mouth desperately needed to get to, and he was already exhausted from the heat of the room. 

“I’m going to take my pants off now.” 

“Ooh, really?” 

“It’s hot as balls.” 

“You’re sweating.” He ran his fingers over Jongin’s forehead. 

“Then I definitely need to take more clothes off.” 

“You won’t see me complaining.” 

Jongin sat up and shimmied out of his pants, much more comfortable. Then he lay right back down on his stomach before Sehun staring at his dick made him too shy. He skipped the scales this time and went right for Sehun’s cock instead, kissing up the underside and lapping under the head. Sehun sighed out a soft ‘oh,’ and tangled his hands in Jongin’s hair. 

Sehun’s cock was even more smooth and soft than his snake skin. It was thick and heavy in his hand and on his tongue. The noise in the living room rose again, but Jongin couldn’t focus on what they were saying. With the way Sehun sighed as his fingers scratched at the back of Jongin’s neck, it didn’t look like he was paying attention either. 

Jongin licked and sucked kisses all along Sehun’s shaft. It had been a while since he’d done this, and Sehun’s cock was too big to just shove down his throat without being careful. After a while he took the head in his mouth and gave him a few cautious sucks. Sehun keened and arched. His long, thin body was so beautiful when it moved like that. Jongin couldn’t believe how lucky he was, that he got to touch him and hold him and see him naked. He pushed Sehun’s cock a little deeper and worked his shaft with his hand. Sehun was so hot and thick and soft, and Jongin felt like he was burning up in the hot room. Having him in his mouth just made Jongin feel more and more empty, especially when he spread his thighs and arched his back, and suddenly he needed to change plans. 

He pulled off of Sehun’s cock and crawled up into his lap. “Fuck me?” 

“R-really?” 

Crap, what if Sehun wanted to wait until they were official to start that. What if he thought Jongin was too easy?

“I mean if… you want to… we can wait?” 

“I want to.” 

Jongin sighed with relief. “Do you have stuff?” 

“Like, lube and stuff? Condoms? I do. They’re kind of old though.” 

“It’s fine, I’m clean. I’m not going to get pregnant.” 

“Thank god, I don’t want to pass on these stupid genes.” 

“What?” That seemed like a real waste of the most beautiful genes ever. “But your genes are amazing.” 

Sehun grabbed his face and kissed him, and pulled away smiling. “You were so serious when you said that.” 

“I am serious.” 

“I know. It was really sweet.” 

Jongin hugged him as tight as he could. Sehun squawked and giggled. “Don’t break my ribs, Nini, they’re the only ones I’ve got.” 

“Sorry. It just sucks that more people don’t see how amazing you are.” 

Sehun cooed and pressed kisses into his hair, ran a hand down his back. “I have the body of a mammal so I need to stay warm to live, but I’m cold-blooded so I have to maintain that warmth using my environment or whatever. I can handle having a body temperature a little lower than normal people, but not less than about ninety. It’s a constant battle to stay warm enough to survive almost everywhere I go. It’s a miracle I’m still alive at this point.” He sighed. Jongin kissed his neck encouragingly. “No one else is comfortable when I am. If I want to survive I have to remove myself from other people a lot. It’s very isolating. I’m a failed experiment. This just isn’t a good way to live.” 

Jongin’s chest clenched up. “You’re not a failed experiment. They got you, didn’t they? You have lots of scientists who raised you, right? Are you really telling me they would have preferred that you never lived at all instead of like this? Would you have preferred that?”

Sehun shook his head. “No, you’re right. I wouldn’t. My many parents wouldn’t either.” 

“Me neither.” He kissed Sehun’s neck again, and Sehun squeezed him tight against his chest. 

“Thanks, Jongin.” 

It was actually really nice that Sehun produced no body heat, because if he did there was no way Jongin would still be hugging him. It was too god damn hot. The room had stopped feeling cozy and started feeling like death a good twenty minutes ago, and Jongin was already pretty sticky. Then again, if Sehun produced body heat, the room wouldn’t be this hot to begin with. Oh well. Jongin couldn’t exactly give him some kind of ‘your genes are fine’ talk, and then insist they go somewhere less hot to fuck. Speaking of. He leaned back to kiss Sehun, and felt Sehun’s cock shift under his ass. It was softer now. Jongin wanted to fix that. 

“You still want to fuck me?” 

“Hell yes.” His hands slid down Jongin’s body and cupped his butt.

In the living room Jongdae whined “MoooOOOOOooom,” nice and loud. Jongin snickered as he leaned down and to tangle tongues with Sehun again. 

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” 

“I’m so glad we’re doing this.” With some impressive contortion, Sehun reached down under the bed without knocking Jongin off his lap and pulled out a half-used bottle of lube and a condom. 

“Go easy on me, I haven’t done this in a while.” Jongin whispered and tugged the hem of Sehun’s shirt.

“I’ve never done this,” Sehun admitted as he stripped off his shirt and sweater. 

“Oh!” Ooh, Jongin was his first. How exciting. “I guess I should have guessed that.” Did that mean he was supposed to run the show? Jongin had never done that either. He probably should be nervous that he was the one with all the experience, but he wasn’t. Even if he messed up somewhere, Sehun would be patient with him. “Okay. Um. Start with fingers? It’s always easier for me to relax that way.” 

Sehun squirted some lube onto his fingers. It made a gross noise. Jongin giggled. “You have lube. Does that mean you finger yourself?” 

“No…” He could tell Sehun was blushing a little. “It’s wishful thinking that I have it, I guess. Sometimes I use it when I jack off to prevent chaffing and stuff.” 

Jongin imagined Sehun’s long fingers wrapped around his big, slick cock. Hot. “Can I watch you jerk off sometime?” He sat up on his knees, still straddling Sehun’s thighs, and braced himself on the wall behind Sehun’s head. 

“Only if I’m jerking off to you jerking off.” 

“You want us to watch each other masturbate?” 

“…yeah?” 

“That sounds hot.” 

Sehun smiled and gripped Jongin’s hip. The other hand pushed between his legs until slick fingers slid over his entrance. “You’re freakier than you let on, Nini.” 

“I’m pretty sure Baekhyun warned you about that.” 

“You’re right, he did.” The finger pushed carefully against Jongin’s rim, eased off, and pushed again. 

Jongin wiggled his ass a little. “Stop teasing,” he giggled. 

“I’m really not trying to; I’m scared I’ll hurt you.” 

“You won’t.” He rested his forehead on Sehun’s hair. “It’s okay, just push in.”

The grip on Jongin’s hip got tighter, and Sehun finally pushed hard enough to slip past Jongin’s rim. 

“Mmm…” 

“Was that okay?” 

“Perfect.” 

The finger wiggled slowly up inside him, feeling his inner walls carefully. Jongin could tell he was looking for something. 

“You’ve done your research.” 

“Tell me when I’ve found it.” His other arm snaked (hehe snaked) it’s way around Jongin’s waist and pulled them together. He mouthed at Jongin’s sweaty chest. 

“Isn’t that gross?” 

“No, it tastes like you. Just a lot stronger and saltier.” 

Jongin wrapped his arms around Sehun’s head and leaned heavily on his shoulders. He could feel his scales under his arms. Inside him, Sehun’s finger finally found its mark. 

“That’s it, you found it.” 

“Is this right?” He traced his finger over Jongin’s prostate, feather light. 

Jongin nodded. “Yeah, just like that. Just keep doing that. Keep away from the middle and don’t jab.” He could feel sweat dripping down his back. “You sure this isn’t gross?” 

“Not for me. I’m worried you’re uncomfortable though.” 

“I mean I’m burning up, but don’t worry about it. It’s totally worth it.” 

“We could move…” 

There were more noises from the living room. Jongdae’s shriek, Baekhyun’s loud laugh, and Yixing and Mrs. Kim’s loud protesting. It sounded like they’d moved past the argument.

“Let’s wait and see if they leave. If we move now we’d have to get dressed first.” 

“Good point.” 

Sehun did something nice where he circled Jongin’s prostate with his fingertip, and then began scribbling in some indecipherable pattern. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Writing my name.” 

Jongin shivered a little. “Your name feels really good.” 

This was so intimate. Jongin nuzzled against Sehun’s head. He wondered if the other boy could feel his heartbeat through their chests. With the constant stimulation on his prostate, there was deep, full arousal growing in his groin. 

“Can I do two fingers?” 

“Please, yes.” 

Sehun pushed the second finger next to the first, and then had the problem with being too gentle again. 

“Just push in.” 

“But you’re so tight.” 

“I’ll be fine.” 

The finger pushed a little harder, but not enough. 

“Sehun, you can do it.” 

A little harder. Sehun gripped Jongin closer pushed, still not enough, and vented his stress in a high pitched, quite scream. 

“aaaaaaaaaaaah…” 

“Oh my god,” Jongin giggled. He reached down between them and grabbed Sehun’s hand, holding his fingers steady, and sank down onto them with a slow, happy exhale. “There. No pain at all, see?” 

“Phhhoo. Okay. I got this.” He reached back up and found Jongin’s happy spot. Jongin wrapped himself around Sehun’s neck again. 

“Yeah, that’s perfect.” 

Sehun was very good at this. Maybe a little too careful, but he was thoughtful and gentle. Jongin melted. Sehun had him mewling into his hair in no time, knees sliding apart on the bed until Sehun had to nudge him back up again because he couldn’t move his hand anymore. 

“You ready?” Sehun asked as he tickled over Jongin’s sweet spot, making him twitch and gasp. 

“Y-yeah. Yeah.” 

He let go of Sehun’s neck and fell back on on the bed, legs spread wide, while Sehun quickly rolled on a condom and poured lube over his cock. The blankets were too hot against Jongin’s back. Sehun finished and crawled forward to hover over him, and pushed his damp bangs off his forehead. 

“What do I do now?” 

“C’mere.” Jongin looped his legs around Sehun’s waist and lined them up. The tip of Sehun’s cock brushed his balls. Sehun reached down and moved it to Jongin’s hole. “Okay, you really do have to be less gentle this time. Just go slow, I’ll adjust.” 

Sehun nodded, looking worried, and pushed. The tip of his cock pressed against his hole, stretching the rim a little. Jongin breathed deep and relaxed. “Come on…” He used his legs to pull Sehun forward. More deep breaths. The hard pressure against his entrance kind of hurt in a heady, sexy, ‘I’m being poked by a dick’ kind of way. Another couple slow breaths, and the tip finally slid in. Not even the full head. Sehun gasped. 

“Good, more.” He did all the work, pulling Sehun forward and forcing more inside him. “O-oh!” The full head of Sehun’s cock slipped in. Jongin could feel his rim closing over the ridge. It was a lot. “Gimme a minute.” 

“Yeah,” Sehun breathed through gritted teeth. 

Somebody knocked on the door. Both of their eyes flew open, and Jongin tensed up and winced. 

“Yes?”

“We’re going to dinner with the Kims.” It was Yixing. “You’re both invited, hurry up and get ready.” 

Sehun and Jongin exchanged a look. There was no way they were hurrying up. “U-um. We don’t want to be rude but… I think we’ll skip this one?” Sehun pursed his lips and waited. Jongin reached up and brushed over his pink cheeks with a thumb. 

“We talked them out of not liking you. They want to buy you dinner to make up for it.”

Sehun groaned and buried his face in his hands. Jongin giggled. 

“Xing, we’re kind of busy.” 

“Oh. Busy?” Yixing asked, and Jongin glanced down at where Sehun’s cock sat snuggly inside him. 

“Busy.” 

“Oh yikes. Sorry. I’ll go explain things as delicately as I can.” 

“Thanks.” Fuck, he wasn’t going to be able to look Jongdae’s parents in the face ever again. 

Yixing’s footsteps faded away from the door, and Jongin laughed and groaned. 

“Remember that they’re cats, and they don’t care about this kind of thing,” Sehun reminded him encouragingly.

“Yeah, but still.” 

Sehun laughed and snuggled down into Jongin’s neck. The movement pushed his shaft further into Jongin’s hole, big and powerful. He moaned and pulled him in more, suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of Sehun gradually filling him up. So much gentle friction and the fullness. It kept coming and coming until it was almost too much, and then Sehun’s hips settled against his ass. Sehun’s cock twitched hard. Jongin jerked and gasped. 

“Oh fuck, fuck… fuuuck…” Sehun breathed against Jongin’s skin. 

Jongin would have said the same thing if he could, but right now all he could do was pant and choke on moans. Both of them clung to each other, frozen, and fought to adjust, Jongin’s hands splayed over the soft scales on Sehun’s back

Somebody else slammed their hands against the door. Jongin jumped and whimpered. 

“Did Jongin take that whole thing?” Baekhyun yelled. Jongin felt his face go scarlet. He tensed up all over again, whimpering in pain. 

“Baekhyun, fuck off,” Sehun hissed, right in Jongin’s ear, with every bit of reptilian menace he had. Jongin shuddered violently at the sound, and his whole body unwound and went limp. The pain faded. 

Baekhyun didn’t respond, but Jongin was pretty sure he was long gone and hopefully full of regret. He could almost see Baekhyun’s puffy tail now. His own heart was still beating wildly. 

“Did I scare you? Sorry.” 

“S’fine. I actually think it helped.” 

Sehun hummed thoughtfully and cautiously pulled out, nice and slow, and slid back in. Jongin moaned. That was so good. 

“Yeah… again…” 

“Shh, they haven’t left yet.” He gave Jongin another slow thrust anyway, and muffled Jongin’s involuntary noises with a kiss. 

Sehun kept it slow and quiet until the front door finally shut, and then immediately picked up the pace. Jongin gasped as Sehun’s cock plunged into him again and again, punching the breath out of him every time. 

With no one in the apartment, Jongin wasn’t afraid to let loose every moan and wail. He had to reassure Sehun several times that he liked the roughness, but after Sehun was confident Jongin wouldn’t break, he didn’t hold back. Jongin held onto Sehun’s arms and went boneless. He felt out of his mind in the intense heat, dripping sweat and precum as Sehun’s sinewy body pounded into him. Jongin loved it when sex was like this, where he could just lie back and let go and let someone overpower him completely. 

After some indeterminable amount of time, Sehun pulled out and flipped him over. 

“Sorry, my arms are tired. I hope you don’t mind?” 

Jongin waved a hand and struggled get up on his knees with his face still squashed into the blankets. 

“You good? I don’t want you to overheat.” 

Jongin gave him a sluggish thumbs up and arched his back, baring his hole again. Maybe he was about to overheat, but he’d worry about that after he came. Sehun got a firm grip on his hips and pushed back in. 

This angle was even better. It was deeper, and the pressure on his sweet spot was perfect. Jongin reached beneath himself and gave his dick a couple weak tugs. 

He wasn’t going to last very long, but that was fine. He was happy to curl his hands in the blankets and wait for the pleasure to wash over him. 

A while later Sehun reached around Jongin’s body and tugged him to completion. Jongin didn’t even have the presence of mind to be embarrassed about the sweat dripping from his bangs and down his back. His spasms drove Sehun over the edge as well, and then they both collapsed to the blankets, dizzy and panting. 

Jongin was so hot. Burning up, but when Sehun snuggled up to his back Jongin couldn’t bear to get up and cool off. He closed his eyes instead and let the post-orgasm haze overtake him. 

 

Sehun woke up on cloud nine to find Jongin stirring in front of him. The other boy was still soaking wet. He looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower. He supposed that probably smelled bad to other humans, but to him it was a deep, intense, earthy smell, like lumberjack cologne. Jongin’s dark eyes flickered open.

“Uhmagod. Hun…” He rolled to the side and gave Sehun a sloppy, gooey kiss. “That was good. Let’s do that… all the time. I want to cuddle forever. But… Imma ‘bout to die.” 

“Go cool off?” 

“Kay.” He rolled out of bed and then yelped and looked down at his legs. “The fuck?” He ran a finger up the inside of his thigh and came up with a gooey white liquid. “Didn’t you wrap it up?” 

Sehun examined the condom that was still on his dick. “Oh. It broke. You can use that towel on the floor. I need to do laundry anyway.” 

Jongin grabbed Sehun’s dirty towel and mopped up his nether regions. He was so sexy. Sehun watched his muscles move and flex under his shiny skin. 

“I’m going to take a cold shower. You wanna… sleep in my room tonight?” 

“Yeah, I’d like that. I’m going to take a hot shower. Dinner after?” 

Jongin smiled and nodded. “Jongdae’s parents brought some good stuff.” 

“I’ll see you then.” 

Sehun hated to see Jongin leave but he loved watching him go. The lovely round globes of his ass were shiny with sweat. Shiny golden globes. He giggled to himself as Jongin disappeared around the corner. 

“UGH DISGUSTING!” Baekhyun wailed from the kitchen. “JONGIN YOU’RE SO SWEATY! GROSS! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON! NO GET AWAY FROM ME! DON’T TOUCH ME!” 

There were some matching screams from Jongdae, lots of running around, and the distinct sound of someone falling over the coffee table. Some furniture screeched across the floor. Yixing door closed quietly. Sehun curled up in the spot where Jongin had been laying and breathed in his nice, earthy scent as he listened to the mayhem.


	11. Chapter 11

“Oh fuck yeah Nini. Not so cute now are you? Open those lips for me.” 

Jongin let his mouth pop open. 

“Fuck yes let’s make those lips nice and pink.” 

The gooey wet tip of Baekhyun’s lip gloss smeared across Jongin’s lips as Jongin rolled his eyes. 

“Why are you always like this?” 

“Hold still.” 

“Every fucking time you put makeup on me I feel gross.” 

The cat straddling his lap giggled and reached for a darker color for something called the ‘gradient look.’ Whatever the look was, it looked good on Sehun who was watching over Baekhyun’s shoulder, already fully made-up and ready to go in a thick blue and white bomber jacket. He looked hot as hell. He’d looked even hotter earlier when Jongin had taught him how to finger himself. 

Baekhyun grabbed some kind of product and started on Jongin’s hair. “Maybe if you learned to do it yourself you wouldn’t have this problem.”

“But it always looks so good when you do it.” 

“That’s true.” Baekhyun smirked to himself proudly. He was already all made up too, with very clever use of smudgy red eye-shadow, and looked even more like a pixie than usual, with glitter in his ear fur. “Usually I’m doing your makeup so you can go look sexy onstage. I’m glad I get to do your party makeup too.” 

“How is it different?” 

“It’s a little more natural since it’s not stage makeup, but overall not that different. You’re going to look very sexy.” 

Speaking of sexy. Jongin glanced over Baekhyun’s shoulder again. Sehun looked amazing in makeup. Eyeliner and darkened eyebrows made him look even more intense and dangerous than usual. Jongin couldn’t take his eyes off him. 

“Stop eye-fucking the snake over my shoulder please. It’s very distracting.” 

“But he’s so hooooot,” Jongin whined. 

Sehun hid his bashful smile behind a hand, which was adorable, and Jongin had to smile to as he watched the way his snake eyes crinkled up and sparkled. 

“You two are disgusting.” 

Yixing’s door opened. “How do I look guys?” 

Yixing had his hair artfully swept back, his lips were a nice subtle dark pink color, and he wore a dark blue button down that he filled out just right. Baekhyun’s hands stopped moving in Jongin’s hair. 

“Damn, Xing.” He jumped off Jongin’s lap so he could go fuss over Yixing’s clothes. Jongin would go fuss too, but he had someone even hotter to pay attention to. 

Sehun sank down on the couch next to him and snuggled into his side. “I’ve never been to a party before.” 

When they’d first met, never in a million years would Jongin have guessed that Sehun could be so soft and cute. He cooed. 

“It’s a lot of fun. We just drink and dance.” If only he could kiss Sehun’s glossy lips. Or even his hair. But it was full of product. “Why did we put on makeup? I want to make out.” 

“Why do you think I was so eager to put lip gloss on you guys?” Baekhyun grabbed Sehun’s arm and tried to tug him off the couch. “I wanted you to not be disgusting for once.” Sehun resisted and buried himself further in Jongin’s neck, and Jongin held on tight so Baekhyun couldn’t pull him away. “But I see now that it was futile. Nothing will ever stop you two from being disgusting. Come on, Jongdae is meeting us there with his lady friend.” 

The weather was getting gradually warmer. Sehun still held them up by the door putting on his heaviest black coat with a hat and gloves. 

Jongin wrapped a scarf around Sehun’s neck for him. “We can always come back early if you need to.” Fucking Sehun was more fun than any party, especially with an empty apartment. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” 

“GROSS!” Baekhyun yelled and pushed his hand into Sehun’s flirty smile. His cheek squished and one half of his lips puckered up like a fish. “None of that! Move through the door!” 

Yixing chuckled as Beakhyun grabbed Jongin’s hand and tugged him out of the apartment while he grumbled. 

The party wasn’t too far, and the air wasn’t too cold. Sehun still seemed pretty comfortable by the time they got there. A bored girl in pigtails pointed towards the coat room and gave Sehun an extra confused eyebrow raise as he began wrestling his gloves off. 

“What the fuck is this music?” Baekhyun shouted over Rihanna and Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie.” “I can’t dance to this.” 

Yixing tapped his elbow and pointed towards the kitchen where they could see a huge blue party punch bowl on the counter. “Guess we have to get drunk first.” 

“Is this the new way of getting freshman girls shwasted? Play music they have to be hammered to dance to? That’s insidiously genius.” 

Sehun leaned in closer to Jongin’s ear as he unzipped his coat. “I have a feeling Baekhyun is the only person that would work on.” 

“Yyyup.” 

Sehun somehow made a fleece mock turtle neck look like party clothes. He followed Jongin through the crowd at the edge of the room to join the other two in the kitchen, where they found Jongdae and a very happy, friendly looking girl in a flowery crop top with light brown hair.

“Heeey!!” She pulled Jongin in for a hug with her beer held aloft. “I’m Wendy, nice to meet you!” 

“Hi, I’m Jongin.” 

She was already shouting and hugging Sehun. 

“We pregamed,” a loud voice roared in his ear. Jongin jumped and turned to find Jongdae’s unusually happy face right next to his. 

“Jeezus, pregamed how much?” 

“Enough.” 

The song changed from angsty Rihanna and Eminem to a rowdy twangy country song and Jongin tugged Sehun firmly towards the shot glasses. “Baekhyun was right, I need to be more drunk for this playlist.” 

Sehun’s darkened eyebrows made him look more stern than usual. By now Jongin knew it meant he was nervous or thinking, not angry. “Jongin, I can’t actually drink very much. At least not when it’s not summer.” 

“Really?” He set the rum bottle back down. 

“Yeah, alcohol dilates blood vessels, makes you loose heat faster.” 

“Oh.” Damn, they would be out of there sooner than he thought if he couldn’t drown out the country boys with some good old Captain Morgan. “Okay, never mind then.”

“No it’s fine, you drink. We’ll get drunk together when it gets warm this summer, but I don’t have a problem sober sitting now. You have fun.” 

Jongin put away the shot glass and reached for a solo cup instead, and dumped about two shots of rum in, followed by some pineapple juice, sprite, and blue Gatorade. “I’ll finish this and be done. Two shots have me barely buzzed but that’s all I need to handle the music. Besides, dancing with me is more fun if I’ve had just a little booze.” He winked and wiggled his hips. 

“Can I try your drink at least? Looked interesting.” 

“It sucks, but sure.” 

Sehun took a tiny sip and his nose and eyes wrinkled up adorably. He didn’t look intimidating at all with that face. “Ugh, that’s too sweet.” 

“I told you.” 

A loud commotion from the other side of the kitchen brought their attention to Baekhyun chugging… something, tail whipping back and forth until he slammed the glass back down on the counter and punched both fists in the air with a roar of victory.

“Is he… not a lightweight?” 

“He does pretty well for his size but not exceptionally well. I think all of us have rubbed his back while he barfed over a toilet at least once.”

Baekhyun beat his chest and hollered like Tarzan, and Wendy laughed and tipped sideways into Jongdae who almost fell over himself. Yixing filmed everything on his phone. 

The country faded out and was replaced with the opening notes of Toxic by Britney Spears, and Jongin yelped and chugged half his drink in a hurry. Sehun pulled them out of the way so that they wouldn’t get trampled by people rushing to the dance floor as Jongin tried to keep sticky blue rum trash from dripping from his chin to his shirt. 

“Want to go dance?” 

“Hell yes. Finally, a good song.” He finished off the drink and pulled Sehun after the crowd. 

This was the part of the party he enjoyed the most. The room was loud, dark, and crowded. Perfect for sloppy dancing and shameless grinding. 

Maybe it was the snake-like flexibility, but Sehun was amazing at sexy dancing. He rolled his hips perfectly with Jongin’s, slow and filthy with the Britney’s seductive purring. Through the crowd they could see Baekhyun grinding on Jongdae who was grinding on Wendy. Yixing still filming. 

Jongin turned around and slotted his and Sehun’s thighs together, hips pressed up against each other. Sehun curled in close with his face tucked into Jongin’s neck and breathed in deep. Jongin could feel the tip of his tongue flick out from between his pretty pink lips and brush his neck. 

“Nice and warm in here,” Jongin shouted in Sehun’s ear and got a sweet hum and a nod while Sehun’s big hands slid up his back under his shirt. They were cool. A very pleasant contrast from the heat of the dance floor. 

“I’ll have no trouble staying warm.” 

They found the perfect angle, grinding against each other in time with the beat. Jongin could feel Sehun’s length growing against his thigh, and Sehun sucked gently on Jongin’s pulse point as they danced, jostled by a heavy crowd of people but still completely alone. Sehun was more careful with his teeth now, but they were still so close, just a fraction of an inch away from his skin. Jongin wondered if he just shifted closer all of a sudden, pressed further into Sehun’s mouth, would he feel them? His dick twitched. 

Sehun’s hand had just wandered down to Jongin’s ass when the song switched to some real Slim Shady early 2000s edition and Jongin reluctantly put some space between his half hard dick and Sehun’s thigh. 

“I’m not drunk enough to sexy dance to this.” 

“Yeah, agreed.” 

The cats and Wendy were yelling Eminem lyrics at each other. Yixing, still filming. Wendy was a better rapper than both of them. No more grinding for them either, despite Baekhyun breaking a flask out of nowhere and passing it to Yixing only after a few very deep gulps. 

“Does the person who made this playlist know anything about dancing?” 

Baekhyun slapped a hand on Jongin’s shoulder and put up a finger. And burped. “Apparently not. Good song. Not a dancing beat.” 

“Yeah, not so much.” The smell of old dinner and alcohol invaded his nostrils. “Ugh, Baekhyun, gross. Don’t burp in people’s faces.” 

“I burped?” He reached back for the flask, and Yixing took one more swig before handing it over. Thank goodness he’d put his phone away.

The next song was Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. Much better. Jongin tugged Sehun by his belt loops back into the crowd and resumed their previous position. This time with heavy make-outs and butt groping. There was definitely a warm buzz under his skin, and Sehun looked happy and comfortable despite his sobriety. 

Half way through the last chorus, Sehun giggled and pointed, and Jongin turned to find Baekhyun, Jongdae, Wendy, and Yixing all dancing on chairs at the front of the room. 

“See? Parties are fun!” 

“Yeah, let’s go to more. Hopefully the next one will have better music.” 

Right on cue, the next song started up with more twangy guitar and a heavy southern accent droning about beer and tractors, and Sehun and Jongin shuffled with the rest of the crowd to the edges of the room. Some dude by the stereo in a plaid shirt frowned at the fleeing crowd but refused to change the song. 

“Fucking Christ, what is this?” Baekhyun stumbled and waved his flask at a speaker. “Eminem, 2000’s pop divas, and country?” 

Wendy and Jongdae were clinging to each other and giggling off by themselves. Jongin could see her scratching above his tail just the way he liked when he was drunk. They were a good pair. 

Yixing tossed his arms around Baekhyun’s neck from behind. “At least this gives us more time to drink.” His hair wasn’t nearly as neatly styled as before but he still managed to look amazing. Baekhyun tossed his head back against Yixing’s shoulder and ground their hips together in time with the country song. His tail curled around Yixing’s leg.

“I don’t think Baekhyun needs more time to drink.” 

“I’m in a good fucking place guys! Good drunk! Level of drunk! I just need… to dance!” 

Yixing detached himself from Baekhyun’s back. “I’ll go get some water.” 

Jongin pushed Sehun back onto the dance floor despite the horrible song just for a little privacy and snuggled up to his chest. Sometimes he didn’t want to kiss or anything, just a nice cuddle was enough to make his heart all fluttery. Sehun wasn’t much bigger than him. A little taller and broader in the shoulders, but the slight difference made Sehun the perfect size for folding protectively around him while still being at the perfect height for easy kissing. He sucked a few little kissing into the soft skin under Sehun’s ear and slipped his hands under Sehun’s jacket. 

“Plaid shirt country boy is giving us a not so friendly look.” Sehun hissed softly in his ear. 

Jongin shrugged. “You could kill him with a bite.” 

“You’re not wrong.” Sehun squeezed him tighter. He was probably colder without the crowd. If the next dance track didn’t come on soon, Jongin was going to drag Sehun home so they could do more of this. But horizontal. And naked. 

A loud cat hiss startled them both out of their cuddles. The cats and Wendy weren’t at the edge of the room where they’d left them. They were backed into a corner by a massive meaty bro with telltale Jack Daniels red creeping up the back of his neck. The kind of jock who had to duck through doorframes and only spoke in carefully masculine grunts. Jongin’s heart jumped straight into his throat with panic. 

Baekhyun hissed again, ears flat against his head and fangs bared. The dude stumbled forward, crowding the cats and Wendy further into the corner. He growled something as Jongin and Sehun rushed closer, Baekhyun snapped back, and then the dude thrust two meaty hands forward and grabbed both Baekhyun and Jongdae’s fluffy cat ears. 

Jongdae yowled furiously and swung his sharp fingernails at the guy’s arm. He must have gotten a good scratch in, because he jerked his arm back hard enough to throw him off balance, and Sehun grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, looked him straight in the eye. 

There were more people coming to help, but it was over. Drunk dude let out a frantic high pitched squeal, and reeled back into a wall, then buckled over and emptied his seventeen shots of whiskey and four beers onto the floor. By the time several of the dude’s frat bro’s arrived to deal with him, he was already scrambling away from Sehun as fast as he could. Snake eyes. Jongin gulped. He couldn’t see Sehun’s expression head on from where he was, but he could see a profile, and Sehun’s eyes were wild and angry. They almost seemed to glow. 

Jongin might have stood there with his breath coming shallow and his heart hammering for the rest of the night, but Baekhyun tumbled into him with a tight hug and Jongin forced himself to focus. 

“W-what happened?” 

The cat shuddered and tried to pet his puffy tail back down. “The guy just came at as saying something about how cats were fucking weird and asking if we wanted pets. He kept trying to grab my tail.” 

Over Baekhyun’s shoulder, Yixing handed six solo cups full of water to some random bystander and pulled Baekhyun out of Jongin’s arms. Wendy had Jongdae covered. The cat was furious but otherwise fine, conspicuously cleaning under the fingernails he’d used to scratch the guy. 

And there was Sehun, coming towards him looking worried and a little shy. His amazing, sexy, scary snake boyfriend who could scare off guys more than twice his size with just a look. 

“I-I’ve never seen a human respond that badly before…” He stopped a couple paces away from Jongin and adjusted his sleeve, not looking up. “Maybe it was because he was drunk. Or because I was really mad.” 

“That was amazing.” 

The worry on his face melted away a little. “Thanks.” 

Jongin pulled him into a hug. Thank goodness Sehun had been there. Who knows what the guy would have done without Sehun scaring him away. He might have gotten away with a lot more before his friends were able to pry him off. 

“Jongin, you’re a little hard.” 

Oh fuck. Now that Sehun mentioned it, Jongin definitely felt a little hot in the pants area. His cock was half full and pressed up against Sehun’s hip. When had that happened? His cock drained quickly as all the blood rushed to his face instead. 

“U-um…” 

Sehun’s fingers curled tighter around his shoulders and his lips danced along the shell of Jongin’s ear, tongue darting out to taste his skin. 

“Do you like it when I get scary, Nini?” He hissed softly, and Jongin shuddered. 

“…I might, um. L-like it…” The dangerous, scary things about Sehun definitely made his heart pound sometimes in a way that wasn’t unpleasant at all. 

“That’s good to know.” 

There wasn’t enough time to find some kind of response before Sehun pulled away again to talk to Jongdae. He could feel it now, the way he was keyed up and turned on, just a touch away from getting hard after catching a glimpse of Sehun’s snake eyes. Maybe it was the awe that did it, or maybe Jongin just really liked how dangerous Sehun was. 

But it might be weird. The scary things were just part of Sehun’s hybrid features. It was kind of weird that Jongin got turned on by them. It might make Sehun uncomfortable. A knot began to tie itself in Jongin’s chest.

He tagged along after Sehun as he and Jongdae got an apology one of the guy’s friends, and then he checked on Baekhyun. Both cats were still mad and a little shaken but they were okay. Wendy was talking sternly with a sheepish looking guy who was apparently the dude’s frat’s president. Sehun didn’t pay him much attention. He was busy, but it still made Jongin anxious. They needed to talk. As much as Jongin wanted to make sure the cats were okay, he also wanted to make sure Sehun was okay with this kink or whatever it was. 

Sehun let Yixing know he was getting cold and made sure he had things covered before taking Jongin’s hand and pulling him towards the coat room 

“Hey, I-I didn’t realize that I felt like that until just now. Is it okay? It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?” 

Sehun’s strong arm looped around his waist and pulled him into the coat room, where he found himself pressed against the wall with Sehun’s lips on his. Sehun kissed him deep and hard until the nerves drained out of Jongin’s throat and faded from his chest. 

“It’s okay,” Sehun murmured when he pulled away. “I’ve kind of suspected the scary snake stuff turned you on for a while. Your face when I showed you guys I had venom said a lot.” 

“It doesn’t bother you?” 

“Of course not.” Sehun’s fingers pet over his cheeks as he kissed Jongin on the corner of the mouth. “I was actually thinking that if you want to… explore it a little more, that could be fun.” Jongin’s lips popped open. His dick hummed back to life, definitely interested even if his head was still catching up. “I’ve been thinking about suggesting it but I-I just don’t want to do anything too intense and make it hard for you to be with me…” 

Jongin shook his head. “I trust you, you know. Even with the scary eyes, I know you’re a super nice person and I know you would never hurt me. You can’t scare me away.” 

“You sure?” Sehun looked timidly up through his eyelashes. 

“Yeah.” The sex had been good so far. Fantastic even, but Sehun’s dangerous side had something hot and titillating crawling under Jongin’s skin and pooling in his groin. Something laced with lust and adrenaline, and Jongin wanted more of it. He could almost taste the rush. Maybe Sehun could too. He could probably tell how much Jongin might get out of it, just from the way Sehun using snake eyes effected him. It was a little embarrassing, the way this simple, non-sexual thing made Jongin feel, but he trusted Sehun with it. It was okay with Sehun. “If you’re down, I want to explore this. I think it could be really fun.” 

“Okay.” Sehun still seemed nervous, but there was a shy excitement in his eyes too. “Let’s find our coats then. So we can go home and you can warm me up.”


	12. Chapter 12

Jongin found himself pressed up against the wall before the front door even clicked shut with Sehun’s big hands splayed across his waist and his his mouth smushed somewhere under Jongin’s eye. 

“Oops, those aren’t your lips.” 

“They’re over here, dummy.” He tried to kiss Sehun instead and got his chin, and then he was too busy laughing to try again, so he gave up and tugged Sehun by the wrist back towards his room. Half way across the floor he tripped. 

“Ow, fuck. Careful, Baekhyun’s gym shoes are out again.” 

The snake managed to miss them somehow. Jongin could hear him treading carefully around the stinky floor lumps. 

“Remind me why we didn’t turn the light on?” 

“That would have made too much se-Ah!” Jongdae’s class notes slid out from under Jongin’s feet and Sehun just barely managed to catch him. “Ugh, remember when this place was clean? That was so nice.” 

“Are you okay?” His hand rubbed over Jongin’s shoulders in the dark. 

“Yeah, just surprised.” He led them on, feeling along the wall for doorways until they finally made it safely into Jongin’s room. Sehun’s hands disappeared and a second later the desk lamp clicked on, and there he was, Jongin’s beautiful man, still in his party makeup. 

“You look amazing.” 

“So do you. Your eyes look so intense.” He cupped Jongin’s jaw and stroked across his cheeks with his thumbs. 

“ _My_ eyes are intense?” He grabbed Sehun’s cheeks and pinched. “You’re the who who can make a frat boy vomit with a look.” 

“That was pretty cool.” 

Jongin pressed forward and kissed him hard. “That was so awesome. You’re a hero now.” 

Sehun’s face melted into a soft smile, and he leaned in and rested their foreheads together. “Thanks Nini.” He reached for Jongin’s hands on his cheeks and laced their fingers together, still smiling softly. Such a far cry from the angry glares he’d always worn for the first few months they’d known him. 

The moment stayed soft as Jongin leaned in and traced the shape of Sehun’s smile with his own lips. A hint of tongue brought a little heat back into his groin. The kiss got slowly heavier, and Jongin pushed Sehun’s hat off his head and his coat off his shoulders. Usually he kept his tongue on the safe side of Sehun’s lips, but today he let it wander into Sehun’s sweet little mouth and slid it along the points of Sehun’s teeth until his tongue brushed softly over one of Sehun’s canines. 

Just like that, all the heat was back. Jongin whimpered a little as his cock throbbed, thrilled to have such a deadly weapon so close. When he pulled back, Sehun’s gaze was dark. “How do you want to do this?” 

“U-um…” 

Sehun pulled him towards the bed, kicking his shoes off on the way. “Do you think we need a safe word?” 

“I’ll just say stop if I want you to stop.” 

“Easy enough.” He pulled Jongin onto his lap. This was one of their favorite positions to be in. Jongin sitting on Sehun’s lap, tight up against him and straddling his thighs. Sometimes Sehun sat on Jongin’s lap instead. Whether clothes were on or off, this position was their go-to. “So what’s going to turn you on the most?”

Jongin imagined getting straight up bit but that probably wasn’t feasible. “Like, specifics or in general?” 

“Let’s start with in general I guess. Usually you call the shots when we fuck, which I’m obviously down with. Do you want me to keep following your lead?” He tucked both cold hands up into Jongin’s shirt and rested his palms on Jongin’s pecs. Jongin buried his face in Sehun’s hair and breathed in, trying to figure out what he really wanted from this, what would be the most thrilling. Sehun’s fingers flicked lightly over his nipples, and Jongin felt the way his muscles went lax like he wanted to become a puddle in Sehun’s arms. 

“Would you be okay with being in control?” 

“Yeah, I think I could do that. I have some ideas if you don’t.” His hands slid back to Jongin’s waist, and he turned them and tipped Jongin back onto the bed, still settled between his legs. 

“Okay. You’re in charge then.” 

Whenever they messed around in Jongin’s room, Sehun’s clothes stayed on much longer than Jongin’s, at least until things warmed up. This time wasn’t any different. Sehun pushed open Jongin’s shirt so he could kiss his way down Jongin’s chest towards his waist and back up again with all his clothes firmly in place. 

“Jongin, you’re so beautiful.” 

“If I’m just half as hot as you then I’m happy.” 

“You’re hotter than me.” 

It was always an awesome confidence boost to have the hottest guy Jongin had ever met telling him he was attractive. Jongin grinned and flushed. “Am not-oooh…” 

Sehun hummed around Jongin’s nipple and Jongin spread his legs wider so Sehun’s abs could settle heavily on top of his crotch. 

“Pants?” 

“Yours or mine?” 

“Mine.” 

Sehun rolled off to one side so he could unbutton Jongin’s pants and wrestle them down his legs. “We’ll leave the briefs on for now.” He cupped a possessive hand over Jongin’s crotch and returned to his mouth for more kisses. 

“So far you’re pretty good at this in-charge thing.” 

“Oh good. Let’s hope I don’t blow it.” 

“Well I mean… it’s fine if you blow it, that’s kind of the goal. Just as long as it’s not premature I guess.” 

The hand on his junk squeezed. “Hey! This is supposed to be serious sex!” 

“Pfft, right. Sorry.” 

Sehun’s lips drifted from Jongin’s mouth down over his cheek to his ear, where he let out a soft, slow snake hiss, seductive and threatening. The hair on the back of Jongin’s neck stood up. He shivered all the way down his spine. 

“Was that good?” Sehun purred, and Jongin nodded. Sehun’s lips pressed gently into Jongin’s skin, right under his ear. When he hissed again, Jongin could feel the air against his neck.

The hisses weren’t too scary, but they were so unique to Sehun, with just an edge of danger and a suggestion of what else he could do. With every hiss, Jongin melted further and further into into the bed until he didn’t want to move anymore, even to spread his legs further so Sehun could have more room to grope his junk through his briefs. 

“I exssspected you to tenssse up,” Sehun breathed against his neck with his hissing mechanism still half on, “but you got loossser inssstead.” 

“You sound like Orochimaru from Naruto,” Jongin slurred. The hissing stopped because Sehun couldn’t hiss and giggle at the same time. 

“Serious sex, remember?” 

“Sorry I couldn’t help myself.” His voice was all slurry because moving his jaw already felt like too much effort. “It’s sexy though, please don’t stop.” 

Over the next few minutes the hisses got progressively more threatening, Sehun’s hand still kneaded his crotch, until Jongin started trembling and whimpering. 

“You’re sso hard, Nini.” His fingers traced over Jongin’s cock under the fabric, eliciting a couple gasps, and normally that kind of teasing would have had Jongin thrusting up into his hand, but he just lay still. “Turn over for a bit?” 

“I don’ wanna move…” 

“Like… you want to stay in this position or you don’t feel like using your muscles?” 

“The second. You can move me.” 

It took a minute and some fumbling for Sehun to roll Jongin’s dead weight over onto his stomach, and eventually Jongin had to give up and shuffle himself into position. “Sorry, I just felt like pudding and I didn’t want to move.” 

“Because of the hissing?” Sehun pulled Jongin’s shirt off, leaving him mostly naked. 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay I’ll just hiss some more if you want to get back to feeling like pudding.” 

“Yes please.” 

This time Sehun laid down on top of him, squishing him into the mattress. The fabric of Sehun’s sweater pressed into Jongin’s bare back, radiating no heat as usual. Sehun tucked his face against the nape of Jongin’s neck and let out his darkest, scariest hiss yet. Jongin went right back to the pudding phase with a deep shudder. 

“That’sss good?” 

“Yeah… You’re so hot…” Amazing sexy boyfriend with his amazing scary snake stuff. 

“Okay. Cool. And thank you.” He shoved a hand under Jongin’s hips so he could cup his crotch again, and returned to half hissing, half kissing the back of Jongin’s neck. 

Every hiss had Jongin’s heart rate kicking up a little. It was like bungee jumping or skydiving. Thrilling, but Jongin knew he wouldn’t get hurt. Sehun had him pinned down and helpless, continuously reminding him how dangerous he was, but while Jongin knew he was safe it was exciting. 

Sehun’s free hand, the one not squeezing Jongin’s crotch, got a firm grip on his shoulder, and then Jongin felt Sehun’s lips open and the points of his teeth brushed against his skin. He gasped, heart hammering, as Sehun’s deadly weapons drifted over the tops of his shoulders. 

“The teeth really get you don’t they?”

Jongin whimpered. Points of canines pressed into one of his traps under Sehun’s firm hand while Jongin’s cock jerked in Sehun’s other palm. 

“Sh-shit…” 

“Ssstill good?” 

“Yeah…” 

He returned to kisses, with a hiss here and there, and then let his teeth brush over Jongin’s skin whenever he was least expecting it. Every time it triggered the same fight-or-flight panic that set Jongin’s heart racing. 

“You’re ssshaking,” Sehun hissed. 

Jongin wasn’t cold or jittery or even nervous really, but he was still definitely trembling like a leaf. Sehun’s teeth closed ever so gently on his neck. Jongin whined and panted, heart thudding against his ribs. He could almost feel them sinking into him and filling him with venom. His cock throbbed. 

“Ssstay ssstill.” 

That more than anything made Jongin tense up, so afraid that his body would move without his permission and get him hurt. Sehun’s pressed his weight down harder onto Jongin’s back as he closed his teeth around the junction of his neck and his shoulder and bit. Not hard enough to break skin, but hard enough that Jongin panted out high pitched whimpers with every breath. All he could think about was the apple with sickly yellow venom oozing out of the punctures from Sehun’s canines. 

The teeth receded, and Jongin deflated back down, shaking like a leaf. His head spun a little. 

“You’re being ssso good, Nini. Sstill having fun?” 

Jongin nodded, feeling like he’d just stepped off a particularly harrowing roller coaster and was aching to get back in line to do it again. 

“Niccce”

Sehun lifted off for a minute, still giving Jongin the occasional hiss, to wrestle his pants down his thighs and yank Jongin’s underwear off. When he settled back down, Jongin felt Sehun’s long, hard length, still hidden underneath his briefs, press up against the fleshiest part of his butt. Jongin remembered about a week before when Sehun had let him rutt desperately into his gorgeous round squishy butt cheeks like he was humping a pillow until he came. The hand got shoved under his hips to cup his crotch again, palming his shaft while Sehun’s fingertips kneaded into his balls, and then Sehun was finally ready again. He started up a super slow grind against Jongin’s butt as he traced his teeth gently over Jongin’s shoulders. 

Jongin had never been so turned on in his life. The adrenaline really made things fun. Jongin had always liked scary movies, roller coasters, and haunted houses; things where scary was still safe, but this was the first time the thrill of fear had ever been tied to sex. 

After just a few moments, Sehun readjusted so that Jongin’s legs got pushed further apart and Sehun’s cock slid up in between his butt cheeks. He rutted faster as his teeth latched onto Jongin’s shoulder and he sucked hard. Jongin gripped the pillow and his high pitched whimpers spilled from between gritted teeth. Sehun was so close to biting him. So close to sinking his teeth into Jongin’s skin, and Jongin anticipated the pain even though he knew it wouldn’t come. Sehun’s hand squeezed over his cock in time with his thrusts. 

Every time Sehun bit down on Jongin’s shoulders, Jongin tensed up and rutted down into Sehun’s palm until the biting stopped and he melted back into pudding phase with relief. Jongin quickly lost track of how many times Sehun pressed his teeth into Jongin’s skin. All he could focus on was the panic when he knew it was coming, the thrill while it was happening, and then the blissful relief when Sehun pulled away. 

“You’re so good, baby.” Sehun’s voice startled Jongin out of a strange haze in his head. “I’m going to flip you back over.” 

“Huh…” 

“Here we go.” He manhandled Jongin onto his back, a little more forcefully this time, and Jongin didn’t have to move at all. The cold air hit his chest and he realized he was sweating, and that he missed Sehun’s venomous teeth already. His rush would ebb if they didn’t come back. Sehun pushed his legs wide and leaned over him with a low hiss. “Nini, you sshould sssee yourssself. You look ssso ssexssy.” 

Some kind of comment drifted through Jongin’s head, something about wondering whether or not he looked like he was on drugs, but the thought was gone before he could voice it and he didn’t remember how to talk anyway. 

“You’re so beautiful, Nini.” He smiled that beautiful smile that Jongin loved so much, all crescent eyes and cuteness, and Jongin felt his heart rate slow as his chest filled with warmth, just in time for Sehun to lean down and slide his teeth over Jongin’s collarbone with a dark hiss. 

There was a big different between feeling the teeth against his back and against his chest. Chest was way scarier. The skin there felt weaker, more intimate, and Jongin whimpered every time Sehun’s canines so much as brushed his skin. Part of him was convinced every time that he was about to get bit. He was scared he would move and get himself hurt, but Sehun kept a firm grip on him with at least one hand to keep him from moving. 

Sehun’s teeth wandered over each collarbone and over both pecs. In an especially terrifying moment, he nipping ever so lightly at Jongin’s nipples, and Jongin’s dick throbbed so hard he thought he was actually going to cum. Without both Sehun’s hands gripping his ribs he would have jerked up into Sehun’s face and gotten himself bitten. After that Sehun traced over his abs and gently bit his hip bones. Every time he got too tense, Sehun gave him a dangerous hiss that left Jongin’s muscles all tingly and loose. The teeth pressed into the skin between Jongin’s hips, lower and lower, until he reached the very base of his cock, and Jongin felt a tight familiar heat growing in his groin and squeaked in panic. 

“N-no!” 

Sehun pulled away immediately. “Are you okay?” 

“Do-on’t, I-I’ll cum.” 

The serious worry on Sehun’s face turned into a mischievous little grin. “Oh. Okay, sorry. We’ll do that next time.” He nipped the inside of Jongin’s thigh instead, and Jongin squeaked again when he thought for a second he broke skin. But he hadn’t. Jongin was just really sensitive there. 

Sehun knew he was sensitive there. He fastened his teeth on tight and sucked hard. Jongin’s head spun with panic and arousal until he was done. The hickeys were nerve-wracking because it felt like Sehun could very easily break skin on accident. He thought that particular terror was over until Sehun latched onto the other thigh instead. Jongin gripped the blankets and willed himself not to move

When Sehun’s teeth finally released Jongin’s thigh, Jongin let out all his breath in a loud relieved sigh and melted back into the blankets, savoring how his head spun and his dick throbbed against his stomach. He wanted Sehun to do it again. A hand on the back of his knee pushed his leg up and back, and Jongin thought he was going to get another hickey, but instead he heard a bottle click shut and something slick and blunt nudged up against his hole. Jongin blinked his eyes open. 

“I’ll keep going with the teeth, but I want to do that while I’m inside you, okay?” 

“Fug yah…” 

“Nice.” He gave Jongin one last hiss to help him relax, and then pushed in. 

Getting filled up by Sehun’s big dick was overwhelming every time. This time it was even more intense. Jongin heard himself moan loud and long as Sehun got himself fully seated right away, tucked as far up into Jongin as he could get, and then stilled and rubbed his hands over Jongin’s stomach until he adjusted. 

“I’m not going to last long.” Sehun’s voice drifted into Jongin’s head and cleared away some of the fog. “You’re too hot like this. You make such pretty noises.” He leaned down over Jongin to kiss him, and Jongin’s arms came alive to wrap around him and fist his hands in the back of Sehun’s sweater. Back to a familiar position. Kissing Sehun calmed him down enough to find his words again. 

“I’m not going to last long either.” 

“Are you having fun?” 

Jongin’s throat hurt from panting and his heart ached from going so fast for so long, but his face split into a grin. “Fuck yeah. Will you do snake eyes?” 

Sehun froze and pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Maybe this time we’ll try at half strength or something?” 

“Okay. I trust you, you’re not going to scare me away.” 

“Okay.” He blinked down at Jongin with the softest expression. “Let’s do this.” 

Sehun sat back up looking cute and happy and pulled off his sweater. The fleece turtle-neck clung to his chest better, so Jongin counted it a win. He was still wearing his jeans, but it was probably too late to fix that. Sehun’s thick, hard cock felt incredible resting comfortably inside him, and Jongin was excited to get it moving, but Sehun wasn’t in a rush. He sat back on his heels and lifted one of Jongin’s ankles up to his mouth to give it a kiss, and then followed the kiss with a gentle bite. Jongin gasped and gripped the sheets under his hands, and just like that the rush was back. His heart raced with excitement as Sehun’s canines slid down his leg towards his knee, chewing a little on the soft flesh of his calf. 

It didn’t take much to get Jongin back to being a whimpering, quivering puddle of fear and arousal. Sehun left another hickey on the inside of both knees before he began to move with the shallowest little thrusts. Normally Jongin would have been writhing for more friction, but the threat of getting bit held him still. 

After Sehun had made his way from Jongin’s second knee down to his ankle, he dropped the legs and focused on thrusting, a little harder and deeper, until he found a good rhythm and a better angle that had Jongin mewling with every thrust. Then he gave Jongin a lovely scary hiss and grabbed one of his wrists instead. 

Sehun’s canines scraped over the soft underside of Jongin’s wrist as his cock slid along the perfect spot in Jongin’s passage. Jongin could barely think, so turned on but terrified of how close the teeth felt to sinking into his delicate skin, right over his veins. They traveled down, nipping at his arms. Sehun switched his grip to right above Jongin’s elbow and latched onto the soft skin on the inside of his arm and sucked. His thrusts picked up as Jongin’s whimpers got higher and faster. He left another hickey right up close to his armpit and then drew back and reached for the other wrist. 

As he pulled it towards his mouth, he looked down at Jongin with something wild and cruel burning in his eyes. Something menacing and evil. They seemed to glow with intensity, beady and threatening, like looking into the barrel of a gun. For a split second Jongin though Sehun was actually about to bite him, and almost yanked his hand away until Sehun turned away towards his wrist and Jongin realized it was snake eyes. 

Heat bloomed all throughout Jongin’s core. Sehun’s fangs pressed into his wrist, and he wrapped his legs tight around Sehun’s waist to keep him from moving so he wouldn’t immediately cum. So that was snake eyes. On low strength. To think his soft, sweet Sehun could look like that. No wonder the frat boy had vomited. When Sehun looked down at him again as he gnawed on Jongin’s forearm, his eyes were back to their usual warmth, crinkled into a smile. He sucked a dark hickey under his elbow with his teeth pressing to his flesh hard enough that they would have sunk in if they were still on his wrist. Every time he opened his mouth to latch on Jongin felt like he was at the top of a drop on a roller coaster, preparing himself for the terror of falling. 

He let Sehun start thrusting again, mostly because his thighs were shaking too much to hold him still, and Sehun began fucking him good as he left one more hickey on the inside of his bicep, one at the top of his chest, and then he sat up and pinned Jongin’s wrists to the pillow with his face angled down. Jongin’s stomach clenched up, breath coming in frantic pants, because he knew it was coming again. When Sehun looked back up, Jongin found himself pinned under snake eyes at point blank range. 

Sehun looked nothing short of deadly. Jongin had never seen anything so terrifying. He wanted to move, wanted to push the monster off and run to save his fucking life. He sobbed frantically, shaking like a leaf, and then Sehun blinked and it was gone. It was just his Sehun, who would never hurt him. His beautiful, scary, amazing boyfriend, and he gasped in relief. Sehun ducked down and closed his teeth around Jongin’s neck for the hardest, scariest hickey yet, thrusting at full force. 

Jongin came. The mix of arousal, relief, and fresh thrill along with Sehun’s perfect thrusts tipped him over and he exploded all over Sehun’s shirt, but he barely even noticed. It was yet another intense rush of happy chemicals that washed any remaining coherent thought out of his head. All he could do was wail and shudder as his body convulsed. Sehun’s firm hands barely managed to hold him still. 

He was dimly aware of the rush fading, with the biggest drop on the roller coaster behind them. His orgasm faded too. He felt Sehun release his neck to make all his usual adorable orgasm noises. He only noticed as Sehun spilled cum into his passage because it felt oddly cool inside the heat of his hole. 

Then Sehun’s breath slowed and he moved away. Jongin whined in protest.

“I’m not going anywhere, Nini.” 

Fabric rustled around. Jongin tried to figure out just how scrambled his brain was like a stoner trying to figure out if his brownie was working or not. It was working. Jongin giggled and reached out for his boyfriend. 

“Just a minute, gotta get naked. Where did I throw your boxers?”

He pointed vaguely at the floor. A second later something soft rubbed over his stomach and between his legs. It was too hot to be covered in blankets, but that’s what Sehun needed when he wasn’t wearing clothes. At least Sehun’s chest was nice and cool when he pulled Jongin close. Jongin was still shaking all over, and he felt even clumsier than usual as he wrapped himself around Sehun’s finally naked body. 

“So that went well. You’re smiling.” 

Jongin tucked his head under Sehun’s chin and realized he was right, and his cheeks hurt.

“Mmm.” 

Sehun rubbed his back. 

“I’m glad you’re smiling. I was nervous that you’d still be scared or something.” 

“Thad waz the biggesd adrenalin rush ever,” Jongin slurred. “You’re zo hod I’m gunna die.” 

“You know, even if I had bit you, unless I injected you with venom on purpose nothing would have happened.” 

“I know. It was more fun to pretend it would have been a big deal.” He was already struggling not to fall asleep so he could stay awake with Sehun for just a minute longer, feeling his long fingers brush through his hair. “Do you want to do that again sometime?” He was already looking forward to his next personal sexy roller coaster ride. 

“Yeah. But I like normal sex too. Next time I want to bottom.” 

Jongin hummed and pawed at Sehun’s bubble butt with trembling hands. “I haven’t topped in a really long time. I’m excited.” He pressed a couple kisses into Sehun’s collarbones. 

There were a couple minutes of quiet cuddling, which meant Jongin felt more and more tired, as much as he tried to stay awake so he could enjoy every last second of his fading high in Sehun’s arms. His body was still buzzing with happy fun energy.

“Hey Jongin?” 

“Hm?” 

“I’ve always had a lot of fun using my snake things to scare people, but I think I liked scaring people because I’m more scared of them. I don’t want my friends to be scared of me. And I mean clearly you’re scared of the venom and the snake eyes because you’re not a robot, but even when I was biting you and giving you snake eyes, you were never scared of me. You trust me so much, and that means a lot.” 

Jongin wiggled around and forced his eyes open, trying his best to be awake for this serious conversation. 

“Of course I trust you. You’re a wonderful person and I know you care about me a lot. It doesn’t make you feel bad when I get scared of your teeth, right?” 

“No, actually I have a lot of fun using the teeth and the snake eyes. It’s cool that you like fucking around with them as much as I do. If you actually thought I was going to hurt you with them, then I would feel bad, but you clearly trust me not to.” 

Jongin flopped clumsily around until his face was level with Sehun’s so he could kiss him. He couldn’t believe he was so lucky to have such a gorgeous, cool, awesome, sweet, amazing boy in his bed with him. 

“You trust me a lot too, Hun. Especially remembering how much you didn’t want friends at the beginning of the semester, it means a lot to me that you trust me enough to do stuff like this. Like, get naked with me and stuff.” Maybe not the most eloquent, but he hoped it did the trick. 

Sehun kissed him again and squeezed him tight to his chest. “Thanks, Nini. Now go to sleep. You’ve got your sleepy blinky I-can’t-open-my-eyes-all-the-way pout on.” 

“Uggh, don’t mention the pout.” 

“Shh, I love it.” 

Jongin nuzzled back down into Sehun’s chest and closed his eyes. “Goodnight, Hun.” 

“Goodnight, Nini.” 

He was awake enough for a few more minutes of hands sliding through hair and down his spine, of feeling overwhelmingly safe, happy, and thankful, and then he was dead to the world until they were both woken up by Yixing and Baekhyun loudly making out outside their door at two in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Come give me a follow on twitter at [@M_M_Socks](https://twitter.com/M_M_Socks). Sometimes I post screenshots of WIPs and ask who's interested in certain kinks or aus that I might want to try. Its a fun time.   
> Let me know in the comments what you think!


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